STOCK MARKET
China selects supervisor
China appointed banking veteran Yi Huiman (易會滿) as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, people familiar with the matter said. People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Deputy Governor Zhu Hexin (朱鶴新) is to replace Yi as chairman at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC, 中國工商銀行), the people said. Yi, 54, is to take over from commission chairman Liu Shiyu (劉士餘), who ran the commission for three years, they said.
AVIATION
Tan denies stock sale to ANA
Billionaire Lucio Tan (陳永栽), who controls Philippine Airlines Inc, denied reports about a forthcoming stake sale days after ANA Holdings Inc confirmed that it is in talks with the carrier’s listed parent, PAL Holdings Inc. There is “no plan” to sell, Tan, 84, said in an interview on the sidelines of a central bank event in Manila on Friday. News that a stake sale is coming is “just a rumor,” he said when asked about talks with ANA, declining to elaborate.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford CEO not satisfied
Ford Motor Co chief executive Jim Hackett called Ford’s performance last year “mediocre by any standard” in an e-mail to employees late on Thursday, a source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Yes, we made US$7 billion last year,” Hackett wrote. “But think of it this way: This represents a 4.4 percent operating margin, about half what we believe is an appropriate margin. So we are aiming for much closer to US$14 billion.”
BRANDS
Kering might owe back taxes
Kering SA, the French owner of the Gucci luxury brand, owes about 1.4 billion euros (US$1.60 billion) to Italy in back taxes, according to the conclusions of a government audit. The probe scrutinized business activities by Kering’s Swiss subsidiary, Luxury Goods International, from 2011 through 2017, the company said in a statement. Kering said it contests the findings of the Italian audit. The auditor’s report is to be reviewed by the Italian Agency of Revenue, which is to reach a final conclusion.
DEVELOPERS
Indian firm to pick auditor
India’s beleaguered Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd could appoint an auditor to look into the financial statements of the company and its subsidiaries dating back five years, the Economic Times reported, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter. The newly appointed company would also scrutinize the role of the firms’ previous auditors, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG.
GREECE
IMF bullish on GDP growth
The IMF on Friday said that it is optimistic on Greece’s growth and employment prospects for this year, but urged the government to stick to reforms to maintain the momentum. In a report published following five-day talks with officials in Athens, IMF officials said that the battered Greek economy is set to grow 2.4 percent this year, up from 2.1 percent last year. The report also argued that the heavily indebted country’s medium-term ability to repay its creditors — mostly its European partners and the IMF — remains “robust.”
Poland is betting on a flood of investments and technology transfers from Taiwanese companies to reengineer its US$1 trillion economy. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday that Poland will no longer be “just an assembly hub” as it pursues further investments from the likes of Foxconn Technology Group (富士康). The firm, whose full name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), last month agreed to build electric vehicles (EVs) in the European Union nation and now could be a partner in a semiconductor venture, he said. The government’s aim is to boost manufacturing and the country’s high-tech chops in an era
Taiwan remained the sixth-largest net creditor nation in the world last year, despite a fall of more than 10 percent in its net international investment position (NIIP) over the year, the central bank said yesterday. The NIIP is the difference between a country’s external financial assets and its external financial liabilities. Taiwan’s external financial assets hit US$3.27 trillion at the end of last year, up US$275.75 billion or 9.2 percent from a year earlier, the central bank said in its annual NIIP report. The growth largely reflected an increase in holdings of overseas marketable securities by residents in Taiwan, as well as a
BAD FAITH LITIGATION? The two companies, owned by a California-based private equity firm, could be seeking licensing fees or a settlement payout with the suit Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) Director-General Liao Cheng-wei (廖承威) said yesterday he suspected that two firms suing contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) for patent infringement are “patent trolls.” A patent troll refers to a company that buys patents not for manufacturing products, but to sue other companies for compensation, accusing them of using its patents. Patent trolls, formally called Non-Practicing Entities or Patent Assertion Entities, were responsible for more than 50 percent of lawsuits in the US last year, costing targeted businesses tens of billions of US dollars a year, according to the US-based LegalCharity Web site. Asked whether
RESTRICTION BREACH: ASML said that it denies ‘unfounded rumors regarding non-compliance with export controls concerning China,’ and enforces controls strictly US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in a series of recent meetings outlined concerns to Dutch chip-equipment giant ASML Holding NV’s senior leaders that one of its top-of-the-line machines might have made its way into China, in violation of US-led export restrictions. In the meetings, Lutnick expressed concern to ASML executives over the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, people familiar with the talks said. EUV systems are used by firms such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) to manufacture processors for the likes of Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc. ASML has never been allowed to ship them to China because of curbs
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