AVIATION
Airbus sees profit soar
Airbus SE more than doubled third-quarter profits as higher deliveries of its A350 wide-bodies swelled cash, outweighing production stumbles with other models. Earnings before interest, tax and one-time items climbed to 1.58 billion euros (US$1.8 billion), beating the 1.4 billion euros forecast of analysts. The company delivered 52 more jets than a year earlier and got a boost from a stronger US dollar, in which planes are priced. Airbus is still seeking to catch up on A320neo narrow-body deliveries after the program was held up by engine glitches. That has been compounded by internal industrial challenges, it said, so that meeting targeted handovers would be “a greater stretch.” The company stuck with its full-year delivery target of about 800 planes.
INTERNET
Baidu forecast disappoints
Baidu Inc (百度) predicted sales below analysts’ estimates as the Chinese search giant warned about a potential hit from regulatory changes, a slowing economy and the overhaul of its medical ads business. Revenue would be as high as 26.72 billion yuan (US$3.8 billion) in the fourth quarter, the Beijing-based company said on Tuesday. Baidu said the effect could last for the next few quarters as it ramps up spending on video content. While Baidu dominates desktop search in China, questions hang over the ad outlook as businesses adopt a more cautious approach to spending with US trade tensions escalating. Restrictions on video game licenses have forced many key customers to pull back advertising as they wait for permission to make money from their titles.
TELECOMS
Docomo to splurge on 5G
NTT Docomo Inc, Japan’s second-biggest mobile phone carrier by sales, plans to invest ¥1 trillion (US$8.8 billion) on infrastructure over five years for 5G services that allow faster data transmission. The carrier also increased planned investment this year by ¥10 billion for offering “pre-commercial” 5G services at limited locations, including airports, stadiums and Docomo premises, by September next year, the company said in a presentation yesterday, along with second-quarter earnings. The company also raised its estimate for capital spending this year to ¥590 billion, from a previous target of ¥570 billion.
BANKING
Standard seeks profitability
Standard Chartered PLC is working on a three-year plan to improve profitability after growth in Asia boosted the emerging markets lender’s income and has given it some breathing space for the next few months. Operating expenses, which have been a key concern for investors, fell by 1 percent in the third quarter and were below estimates. The bank also said yesterday that it would present its strategy in February next year to improve “financial returns” after its shares dropped by almost one-third this year.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi boosts outlook
Sanofi is moving in the right direction, modestly boosting its outlook for this year after reporting its first increase in quarterly earnings in more than a year. Earnings per share would rise 4 to 5 percent this year. The low end of the range is 1 percentage point higher than Sanofi’s previous forecast. Sanofi’s third-quarter earnings — the first gain since the second quarter of last year — beat analysts’ estimates.
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
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured