CHEMICALS
Akzo to reward investors
Akzo Nobel NV plans to distribute another 5.5 billion euros (US$6.4 billion) to shareholders from the sale of its specialty chemicals business, rewarding investors for a plan that the paint company used to fend off an unwanted takeover approach. The proceeds would be distributed using a capital repayment and share consolidation of 2 billion euros, a cash dividend of 1 billion euros and a 2.5 billion-euro stock buyback, the Amsterdam-based company said in a statement yesterday.
CURRENCIES
Bank lowers yuan forecast
Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch was the latest bank to downgrade its forecasts for China’s exchange rate, days after JPMorgan Chase & Co similarly said that an escalating trade war with the US was likely to lead to a weaker yuan. “Near-term damage to China growth is already evident” and would hit the economy in the first quarter of next year, BofA Merrill Lynch strategists, including Claudio Piron, wrote in a note yesterday. “Given this and the prospect of higher US interest rates, Beijing will likely allow and lean on yuan weakness as a crutch for economic support,” they said. The bank now sees the yuan at 7.05 per US dollar in the first quarter of next year, versus 6.9 before, and at 7.1 in the second quarter, against 6.85 before.
VIDEO GAMES
Google, Ubisoft partner
Alphabet Inc’s Google on Monday said it has partnered with Ubisoft SA to test its video game streaming service by offering the latest installment of the Assassin’s Creed series. Selected users can play the game starting on Friday at no charge for the duration of the Project Stream test. The test, if successful, would put Google at the forefront of a new part of the video game business that lets people play games as they are being streamed. Google was developing a subscription-based game streaming service that could work either on its Chromecast or a Google-made console, the Information reported in February.
INTERNET
Instagram gets new boss
Facebook Inc has named Adam Mosseri, a 10-year veteran at the company, as the head of Instagram. The appointment came after the app’s cofounders last week resigned without giving a clear reason. Mosseri was in May named as Instagram’s head of product. He began as a designer at Facebook and most recently led its news feed. The cofounders and Mosseri sought to reassure users that he would “hold true” to Instagram’s values and community. Some users have worried since last week’s surprise departures that Instagram would become more like Facebook, becoming cluttered with features and sucking up personal data.
AUTOMAKERS
E-vehicles shine in Paris
All-electric vehicles (e-vehicles) with zero local emissions are among the stars of the Paris Motor Show — rubbing shoulders with the fossil-fuel-burning sport utility vehicles (SUVs) that many car buyers love. Volkswagen AG’s Audi and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz yesterday showed off battery-powered SUVs for affluent customers. Mercedes also had a bigger version of its conventionally powered GLE sport-utility, while BMW AG offered a new version of its X-5 SUV that has been a pillar of sales and earnings. The EU and China are pushing for more electric and hybrid vehicles to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution that harm people’s health, while drivers favor SUVs and remain reluctant to buy electrics due to cost and range limitations.
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
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],”