FRANCE
Protests to weigh on growth
Growth is set to slow close to a standstill in the final quarter as waves of anti-government protests hit business activity, the central bank said yesterday, downgrading its outlook. The Bank of France forecast that the economy would eke out growth of only 0.2 percent in the quarter from the previous three months, down from 0.4 percent in a previous estimate and from that rate in the third quarter. Executives surveyed for the central bank’s monthly business climate indicator said that the protests had weighed on activity last month.
TELECOMS
Softbank sets US$23bn goal
Telecoms giant and technology investor Softbank Group Corp aims to raise more than US$23 billion by listing its Japanese mobile unit next week in one of the biggest tech initial public offerings (IPOs) in years. The group in a statement yesterday confirmed that it had formally decided to offer 1.76 billion shares, more than a one-third stake, in the Softbank Corp mobile unit, with shares priced at ¥1,500 each. The offering includes 160 million shares added on strong demand. The IPO is to help raise funds for the company as it increasingly transforms into an investment firm.
TURKEY
Currency crisis hits growth
Economic growth dwindled to 1.6 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, official data showed yesterday, falling short of forecasts as a currency crisis and soaring inflation took its toll on the economy. Third-quarter GDP shrank a seasonally and calendar-adjusted 1.1 percent from the previous quarter, Turkish Statistical Institute data showed. The lira eased to 5.3047 against the US dollar after the data, from 5.2950 beforehand.
PHILIPPINES
Manila to seek Chinese help
The country is to seek China’s help in halting the proliferation of counterfeit cigarettes, the Department of Finance said. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez ordered the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs to work with their Chinese counterparts to stop illegal cigarette-making machines from making their way into the nation, the department said. A raid of several warehouses this year yielded unlicensed machines from China along with counterfeit cigarettes and fake stamps, the department said.
CLEANERS
ISS to fire 100,000 people
ISS A/S of Denmark, the world’s largest cleaning company, is planning to cut about 100,000 jobs — representing a fifth of its global workforce — as it exits 13 countries in an effort to refocus its strategy and generate higher profits. The Copenhagen-based company expects organic growth to accelerate to 4 to 6 percent a year “in the medium term,” from 1.5 to 3.5 percent expected for this year, chief executive officer Jeff Gravenhorst said.
BANKING
Credit Suisse to buy shares
Credit Suisse Group AG is to announce a share buyback program worth “billions” and increase its dividend at an investor day this week, newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported. There is pressure on chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam to follow in the footsteps of Sergio Ermotti, head of rival UBS Group AG, and use his own money to buy back shares, SonntagsZeitung said, citing unidentified sources. It also said the share buyback would be for just more than 3 billion francs (US$3 billion) in line with the company’s guidance.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”