TELECOMS
Vodafone back in the black
British giant Vodafone yesterday announced a return to annual profit, as it revealed that long-serving chief executive Vittorio Colao would step down later this year. Chief financial officer Nick Read is to succeed Colao from October, with the announcement coming less than a week after Vodafone unveiled a deal to turn it into Europe’s largest cable and broadband operator by buying assets from US peer Liberty Global. Vodafone posted a net profit of 2.4 billion euros (US$2.9 billion) in the 12 months to the end of March, which compared with a loss after tax of 6.3 billion euros the previous year, the group said in a statement. The turnaround pointed to a “year of significant operational and strategic achievement, and strong financial performance,” Colao said.
VIETNAM
Fitch upgrades rating
The nation won a sovereign rating upgrade from Fitch Ratings on strong economic growth and rising foreign-exchange reserves and. The rating on the nation’s long-term, foreign currency-denominated debt was raised one level to “BB,” with a stable outlook, Fitch said in a statement yesterday. The upgrade puts Vietnam at the second-highest speculative grade and on a par with Costa Rica. The government has committed to containing debt and reforming its state-owned enterprises, boosting its track record of policymaking. Reserves are forecast to climb to about US$66 billion by the end of this year from US$49 billion last year, while general government debt is likely to decline to below 50 percent of GDP by next year, according to Fitch calculations.
CHINA
Investment, sales weak
The government reported weaker-than-expected investment and retail sales last month, and a drop in home sales, clouding its economic outlook. Fixed asset investment grew the slowest since 1999 and the pace of retail sales softened to a four-month low, data showed yesterday, suggesting a loss of momentum in the world’s second-largest economy following generally soft readings in March. The lone bright spot was industrial output, which jumped more than expected as the automobile sector rebounded and steel production surged. Industrial output rose 7 percent last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said, from a seven-month low of 6 percent in March. The statistics bureau said Sino-US trade frictions have yet to make an impact on the economy.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla unveils reorganization
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk on Monday told employees that the electric automaker is being reorganized to speed up production of Model 3 vehicles — a key to profitability at the fast-growing firm. “We are flattening the management structure to improve communication, combining functions where sensible and trimming activities that are not vital to the success of our mission,” Musk said in an internal note. Musk said Tesla is on the road to hitting goals in coming months for the more affordable Model 3 and achieving profitability by the end of this year.
INSURANCE
Allianz profit up 6.8%
Allianz SE’s first-quarter profit rose 6.8 percent, boosted by US President Donald Trump’s changes to US corporate tax and lower restructuring charges. Income from property and casualty premiums rose as customers opted for more coverage after last year’s US hurricanes and California wildfires contributed to a record year for losses.
Agencies
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six