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.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure