ENTERTAINMENT
Pixar cofounder to retire
Ed Catmull, the president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios since 2006, is retiring next year. The 73-year-old Pixar cofounder would remain in an advisory role through July next year, Walt Disney Co said on Tuesday. Disney chairman and chief executive officer Robert Iger said in a statement that Catmull’s impact on the entertainment industry was immeasurable. Catmull was a pioneer in computer animation and technology in film. George Lucas hired him in 1979 to head Lucasfilm’s computer division. Catmull in 1986 cofounded Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. He has overseen films at Disney from Frozen to Up and has been recognized multiple times by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for advances in technology and computer graphics. No replacement has been named.
BANKING
Barclays profit up 72 percent
British bank Barclays PLC yesterday reported a 72 percent surge in quarterly net profit as strong performances by its retail and credit card divisions offset weakness at its investment unit. Profit after tax jumped to £1 billion (US$1.3 billion) in the three months to last month, compared with the third quarter of last year, Barclays said in a statement. “In spite of macroeconomic uncertainty, and particularly concerns over Brexit which weigh heavily on market sentiment, 2018 is proving to be a year of delivery ... at Barclays,” chief executive Jes Staley said.”We remain focused on generating improved returns, and on distributing a greater proportion of excess capital to shareholders over time,” he added.
FRANCE
Manufacturing output shrinks
Manufacturing output in the country contracted for the first time in more than two years as automakers scaled back production while growth in services accelerated. A composite purchasing managers’ index rose to 54.3 this month from 54 the previous month, IHS Markit said yesterday. While orders picked up in services, demand for manufacturing goods fell to the lowest in four months. Renault SA on Tuesday reported a bigger-than-expected drop in third-quarter sales, as turmoil in emerging markets from Turkey to Iran cut into its business. This month, job creation accelerated to a six-month high across the private sector, cost pressures continued to build and capacity constraints remained elevated, IHS Markit said.
CAMBODIA
Garment exports grow
The nation’s garment exports grew 10.73 percent in the first half of this year and are projected to remain strong, despite an EU threat to withdraw duty-free trading access, official data showed yesterday. The country exported US$3.2 billion of garments in the first half of this year, compared with US$2.9 billion in the same period last year, Ministry of Commerce data showed. Garment exports to the EU grew 6.03 percent to US$1.9 billion, while exports to the US increased 16.49 percent to more than US$1 billion, the data showed. The EU this month began a formal procedure to strip the country of its “Everything but Arms” initiative, following July elections that returned Prime Minister Hun Sen to power after 33 years in office and gave his party all the parliamentary seats. The garment industry is the largest employer in the nation and garment exports account for about 40 percent of the Southeast Asian country’s economy.
RESTAURANTS
Italian chef visiting Taipei
Mandarin Oriental, Taipei’s Michelin-recommended Italian restaurant Bencotto is to invite Mandarin Oriental, Milan executive chef Antonio Guida, who oversees the two-star restaurant Seta, to showcase a reinterpretation of classic Italian cuisine with Bencotto’s newly appointed chef, Iacopo Frassi. The four-course lunch set menu with wine pairings is to be available next week at NT$4,980 per person, the hotel said, adding that the seven-course dinner set menu with wine pairings would be available from Wednesday to Saturday next week at NT$7,980 per person. Guida has always been fascinated by culinary alchemy and has worked at various Michelin-starred restaurants, including Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, Italy, and Don Alfonso 1890 on the Amalfi Coast.
INDIA
Zydus to buy Kraft brands
Zydus Wellness Ltd and parent Cadila Healthcare Ltd have agreed to pay 46 billion rupees (US$629.02 million) to acquire some Kraft Heinz Co businesses to strengthen their presence in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Zydus is to gain control of nutrition drink Complan, instant-energy drink Glucon-D, talcum powder brand Nycil and ghee brand Sampriti from the acquisition of Heinz India Pvt, Zydus said in a statement yesterday. Zydus is to use a mix of debt and equity to fund the transaction. The deal gives Zydus access to the top brands in the supplement nutrition drinks market estimated by Euromonitor International to be worth 17 billion rupees last year. Greater awareness is encouraging more young Indians to prefer healthier options to carbonated drinks, and that is in turn leading to intensifying competition in the segment.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford spins off China unit
Ford Motor Co has made its China business a stand-alone unit, recruiting the head of local automaker Chery Automobile Co (奇瑞汽車) to be its CEO, the company said yesterday. Chen Anning (陳安寧) would replace Jason Luo (羅冠宏), who quit earlier this year, just months after taking over at Ford in China. The firm said the restructuring is aimed at accelerating its return to profitable growth. “Success in China is critical as we reposition our global business for long-term success,” Ford president and CEO Jim Hackett said. By having a separate China business, the company intends to move quicker and strengthen local leadership. Ford is in the midst of renewing its product lineup in China and has announced plans to increase local production for both Ford and Lincoln models. China’s auto sales last month shrank 12 percent from a year earlier, the third straight month of declines as demand weakens amid a cooling economy.
BREWERIES
Heineken sees 4.4% growth
Dutch brewing giant Heineken NV yesterday toasted 4.4 percent growth in global beer sales for the third quarter after a warm European summer and strong performances in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Vietnam. The world’s No. 2 brewer also reported an 8 percent yearly increase in net profit for the first nine months to 1.6 billion euros (US$1.82 billion). The brewer saw double-digit growth in key markets in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America with Van Boxmeer. The highest organic growth in beer volume — about 8.1 percent — came from advertising boosts in North and Latin America, particularly in Mexico, as well as in Brazil, driven by the Heineken, Amstel and Devassa brands.
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