ITALY
Trump offers funding help
US President Donald Trump has told Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that the US is ready to offer Italy help in funding its public debt next year, newspaper Il Corriere della Sera reported yesterday. Citing three unnamed Italian senior officials, the newspaper said that Trump made the offer to Conte during their meeting in Washington at the end of last month. The premier spoke of the offer to officials upon his return from Washington, but did not explain what form it would take, the newspaper said.
BANKING
China allows foreign owners
China removed limits on foreign holdings in domestic banks and asset management companies, formalizing a previously announced step toward opening its US$40 trillion financial sector. Overseas financial institutions will now be treated the same as local companies, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement late on Thursday, taking forward a process started last year. Foreign stakes were previously capped at 20 percent for a single institution and 25 percent for a group of foreign investors.
CONGLOMERATES
Siemens may cut 20,000 jobs
German engineering giant Siemens AG sees potential for axing up to 20,000 jobs worldwide as part of a major cost-cutting drive, the monthly Manager Magazin reported on Thursday. According to the online edition of the magazine, Siemens chief executive Joe Kaeser told an investors’ roadshow earlier this month that 20,000 administrative jobs could become superfluous under the group’s “Vision 2020+” strategy. The cuts would only affect administration in Siemens’ headquarters, not jobs at its production sites, the magazine said.
TECHNOLOGY
Alibaba sees record growth
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) reported its fastest pace of growth in more than four years by wringing more revenue from its push into cloud computing and entertainment, mitigating the slowdown of its most lucrative business. Revenue at China’s biggest e-commerce company climbed 61 percent to 80.9 billion yuan (US$11.77 billion) in the April-to-June period, matching the average estimate. Net income slid 41 percent to 8.7 billion yuan, while adjusted earnings per share of 8.04 yuan fell short of the 8.19 yuan estimate.
ELECTRONICS
HP struggles with margins
HP Inc, the world’s largest PC maker, fell after projecting earnings in line with analysts’ expectations as it struggles with thin profit margins in its main business. Profit excluding some items will be US$0.52 to US$0.55 per share in the current quarter, the Palo Alto, California-based company said in a statement on Thursday. Analysts on average projected US$0.53, Bloomberg data showed. Sales grew 12 percent to US$14.6 billion in the period ended July 31.
ENGINEERING
ABB mulls power grid sale
ABB Ltd is considering the sale of its power grid unit amid a surge in the value of the asset, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Swiss engineering company is discussing options with advisers, the people said, declining to be identified as the deliberations are confidential. While ABB’s board, including top shareholder Investor AB, is now open to offers, the firm is not running a formal sale process, they said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San