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.
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the