TELECOMS
DT raises earnings forecast
Deutsche Telekom AG (DT) yesterday lifted its earnings forecast for this year as it presented first-quarter results, saying that fast growth, especially in US arm T-Mobile US Inc, would juice its operating income. Net profit at the firm from January to March increased 32.8 percent year-on-year to 992 million euros (US$1.2 billion). The group reported falling revenue, down 3.9 percent at 17.9 billion euros, as currency headwinds from a strong euro clouded the growth picture. Operating profit also fell 11.6 percent to 5.3 billion euros.
TELECOMS
Softbank profit tops forecast
Softbank Group Corp’s fourth-quarter profit topped analysts’ projections, thanks to Sprint Corp’s first annual net income in more than a decade. The US wireless subsidiary is planning to merge with rival T-Mobile. The Japanese telecommunications provider and technology investor said operating profit reached ¥155 billion (US$1.4 billion) in the three months ended March, more than the ¥137.4 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue was ¥2.35 trillion. The results are overshadowed by the sale of Sprint, a deal that SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son had pursued for years. T-Mobile last month agreed to acquire the smaller rival for US$26.5 billion in stock, but the merger is likely to face heavy scrutiny from regulators.
FOODSTUFFS
Tyson, Cargill eye Keystone
Tyson Foods Inc and Cargill Inc have expressed interest in an acquisition of Keystone Foods LLC, the US supplier of chicken nuggets to McDonald’s Corp, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Marfrig Global Foods SA, Brazil’s second-largest beef producer, plans to sell Keystone and raise more than US$3 billion, said the people, who asked not to be named. An agreement on the transaction might be reached in the next few weeks, one of the people said. Marfrig, Tyson and Cargill declined to comment about the deal. Keystone has operations not only in the US, but also in South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia.
FINANCIAL
Retail clients buoy ING profit
ING Groep NV relied on lending to new retail clients outside its home market to post a better-than-expected profit in the first quarter, offsetting an unexpected decline in commission income. Net income rose 7.2 percent from a year earlier to 1.23 billion euros, beating the 1.11 billion euros analysts polled by the lender had expected. ING added 400,000 new clients in the period, mainly in Germany and Australia, but a 3.1 percent drop in net commission income overshadowed that growth.
REAL ESTATE
Vancouver luxury prices fall
The party is over for now for those sitting on Vancouver’s most expensive properties. Prices at the top end of the market plunged 7.6 percent in the six months to March, making it the world’s second-worst performer in that period, a Knight Frank LLP global survey of prime properties showed. The findings — based on the top 5 percent of the housing market in each city — lend support to anecdotal evidence of a slowdown in Vancouver’s luxury segment after the hike of a tax on foreign buyers from 15 percent to 20 percent in February, the introduction of a speculation tax and rising interest rates. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson called the decline “a necessary step” to restoring stability in the local housing market.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts