AUTOMAKERS
Musk rejects Murdoch report
Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk has denied a report in the Financial Times that James Murdoch is poised to replace him as chairman, prolonging the uncertainty over leadership at the electric-car maker after a deal with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Murdoch, chief executive of 21 Century Fox Inc and a Tesla board member, is the lead candidate for the job, the Financial Times said. The newspaper is wrong, Musk tweeted in response, without elaborating.
APPAREL
Fast Retailing sales surge
Uniqlo’s parent company yesterday said that it had logged a record annual net profit on a sharp rise in sales abroad that outstripped those in its home market of Japan. Fast Retailing Co announced a net profit of ¥154.8 billion (US$1.4 billion), a 30 percent gain on last year. Turnover at Asia’s biggest retailer, a fierce rival of Zara, Gap and H&M, soared by 14 percent to 2.1 trillion compared with last year’s figures. The firm said it expects growth to continue at the brand, which sponsors tennis stars Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori.
PHILLIPINES
Economy to maintain growth
Secretary of Finance Carlos Dominguez said the economy would sustain growth exceeding 6 percent this year, as investment and infrastructure spending help counter the effect of higher interest rates. “We’re confident that we can weather the storms, but we’re not complacent,” Dominguez said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, when asked about inflation. “Definitely, rising interest rates will have a detrimental effect on our growth prospects, but we’re still expecting around 6.5 percent growth for the whole year.”
UNITED KINGDOM
GDP records zero growth
The nation’s Brexit-facing economy ground to a shuddering halt in August, hit by weaker hotel and restaurant activity, official data showed on Wednesday. Six months before the country is due to leave the EU, GDP registered zero growth, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. That followed an upwardly revised 0.4 percent expansion in July, which was boosted by sunny weather and the soccer World Cup.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Bayer considering sale
Bayer AG is considering a sale of its animal health business as it scrutinizes its portfolio in the aftermath of the US$63 billion Monsanto Co acquisition, people familiar with the company’s plans said. Bayer is evaluating animal health as part of a broader review, although a sale is not imminent, the people said, adding that no final decisions have been made. Bayer could gain 6 billion euros to 7 billion euros (US$6.9 billion to US$8.1 billion) if it sells animal health, enough to make the pharmaceutical division “nimble again,” Sanford C. Bernstein analysts said in a note this month.
BATTERIES
Jiangxi Ganfeng stock falls
Major global battery raw material supplier Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co (江西贛鋒鋰業) sank on its trading debut in Hong Kong yesterday as weaker industry sentiment was compounded by renewed turmoil in global markets. The stock sank as much as 28 percent after opening at HK$16.50, the lowest end of its offer range. The firm’s Shenzhen-listed shares tumbled to their daily limit for a second day, as Chinese commodities and battery stocks joined a fresh retreat for equities worldwide.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by