WEALTH
Japanese top regional list
Japan’s rich have the largest accumulation of wealth in the Asia-Pacific region at US$7.7 trillion, but legions of Chinese millionaires are rushing to catch up. The pool of wealth held by China’s high-net worth individuals grew more than 144 percent from 2010 to last year to US$6.5 trillion, consultancy Capgemini SE’s Asia-Pacific Wealth Report said yesterday. The equivalent rate of growth in Japan over the same period was about 87 percent. More recently, India’s millionaires have been picking up the pace. Wealth held by Indian high-net worth individuals rose close to 22 percent last year compared with the prior year, the fastest growth in the region over that period, Capgemini said. Hong Kong had the third-highest growth at 16.3 percent, mainly thanks to a booming real-estate market. Taiwan was fifth after Thailand.
SMARTPHONES
Cook, Ivanka tour schools
Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday toured schools in Idaho with Ivanka Trump, one day after US President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on the iPhone and other mobile phones made in China. The trip provided Cook an opportunity for extended conversation with the president’s daughter and senior adviser just before Donald Trump holds a key meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Buenos Aires later this week. Trade tensions are to be a major part of the agenda. While the iPhone has been spared in the US’ ongoing trade dispute with China, Trump on Monday said that he might include it in another round of tariffs on Chinese imports.
TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft surpasses Apple
Microsoft Corp surpassed Apple to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company — all it took was a US$300 billion rout. After briefly claiming the top spot on Monday, Microsoft shares on Tuesday rose 0.6 percent, pushing the company’s market value to US$828.1 billion at the close. That exceeded by more than US$1 billion the value of Apple, which has tumbled this month on concern about iPhone sales. The last time Microsoft’s market capitalization was bigger than Apple was in 2010, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. A recent stock market swoon has taken a toll on nearly all technology companies, but investors have punished consumer-focused companies like Apple and Amazon.com Inc more than firms that mostly cater to businesses, like Microsoft. Microsoft is down 6.3 percent since the start of last month, while Apple has lost 23 percent.
BANKING
PIMCO sole buyer of bonds
Pacific Investment Management Co (PIMCO) was the sole buyer of UniCredit SpA’s surprise US$3 billion sale of five-year bonds, said two people with knowledge of the transaction, who asked for anonymity. The bond issue, unusually large for a private offering, was taken up by a “prime institutional investor,” UniCredit said in a statement. It was UniCredit’s second sale of senior non-preferred notes, a type of security that can be held by managers of funds that can only invest in senior debt, even though it allows regulators to force investors to take losses in a crisis. The sale would help support the Italian bank’s capital position and boost its subordination ratio by about 73 basis points, the bank said. The cost of the transaction is equivalent to a spread of 420 basis points above the euro five-year swap rate, UniCredit said. That compares with a spread of 70 basis points from a January issue, a European Securities Network note said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last