FOREX
HKMA intervenes again
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) yesterday said it had bought up more than US$2 billion worth of Hong Kong dollars to maintain a long-held peg to the US dollar. The intervention — the third in as many day and the latest in a series of moves to support the currency this year — comes as the US dollar rockets on the back of turmoil in emerging markets and the ongoing Turkish lira crisis. The buyout means that the agency will have just $12 billion in its reserves by the end of the week, the lowest level in a decade, Bloomberg News said.
AVIATION
Blackstone eyes India stake
Blackstone Group LP is in talks to buy a stake in the loyalty program of Jet Airways India Ltd, the troubled Indian carrier that is exploring options to raise cash, people with knowledge of the matter said. The private equity firm has expressed interest in a deal that could value Jet Privilege Pvt at about 30 billion rupees (US$429 million) to 40 billion rupees, the sources said.
COMPUTERS
Lenovo posts Q2 profit gain
Chinese technology giant Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) yesterday recorded a sharp rise in first quarter net profit its turnaround gathered pace. The PC maker posted a US$77 million net profit in the quarter to June 30 — up from a US$72 million loss in the same period last year. Lenovo also reported a 19 percent rise in revenue to US$11.91 billion — its second consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth.
AUTOMAKERS
SEC subpoenas Tesla board
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has subpoenaed Tesla Inc as it digs deeper into CEO Elon Musk’s disclosure about a potential buyout of the electric car maker, according to media reports. The subpoena demands information from each of Tesla’s nine directors, according to a story published on Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper cited an unidentified person familiar with the matter after Fox Business News reported the commission’s move. Neither Tesla nor the SEC would comment on Wednesday. The subpoena signals that the SEC has opened a formal investigation into whether Musk told the truth in his tweet on Tuesday last week about have financing locked up for a deal that analysts have estimated would require US$25 billion to US$50 billion.
BRAZIL
Economy contracted in Q2
The economy contracted nearly 1 percent in the second quarter due to a trucker’s strike, the central bank said on Wednesday. The nine-day strike that ended in late May caused fuel shortages, cut into food deliveries and backed up exports. The bank said the economy shrank 0.99 percent. According to the bank, the nation’s Economic Activity Index rose 3.29 percent in June from May, which saw a 3.28 percent drop. However, that was not enough to close the quarter on a positive note.
AUSTRALIA
Joblessness hits record low
Unemployment dropped to the lowest level since November 2012, edging toward the full employment level its central bank is targeting, even as hiring fell and fewer people sought work last month. Joblessness fell from 5.4 percent in June to 5.3 percent, which was economists’ median estimate, Bureau of Statistics data showed yesterday. Employment fell 3,900 from June, when it rose an upwardly revised 58,200.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the