BANKING
ABN Amro misses estimates
ABN Amro Group NV missed fourth-quarter profit estimates on increased anti-money laundering costs and as an anticipated dividend increase failed to materialize. The Dutch lender kept its dividend at 1.45 euros for last year, the same as the year before, missing analyst estimates of 1.54 euros. Fourth-quarter net income was 316 million euros (US$357.7 million), including 85 million euros in pre-tax for additional costs of customer due diligence programs and elevated loan impairments. The CET 1 ratio declined to 18.4 percent from 18.6 percent in the previous quarter, maintaining one of the highest capital buffers in Europe. Net interest income fell to 1.64 billion euros from 1.7 billion euros a year earlier, as ABN Amro faced increased competitions from new players — mostly pension funds and insurers — in the mortgage market.
BEVERAGES
Heineken beats forecast
Heineken NV, the second-largest brewer in the world, reported full-year earnings that beat analysts’ estimates, helped by the fastest sales growth of its namesake brand in a decade. Adjusted operating profit on an organic basis rose 6.4 percent to 3.87 billion euros last year, beating the average analyst estimate of 3.84 billion euros. Full-year beer volume rose 4.2 percent, the Dutch company said. Analysts expected 4 percent growth. The rise of low and no-alcohol beers is increasing demand for Heineken 0.0, helping the brewer’s flagship brand boost volumes by 7.7 percent. Heineken reported that profit growth was partly due to running its business more efficiently as commodity expenses rise. The company has forecast a mid-single-digit percentage growth in operating profit this year as it tries to manage those costs.
AUTOMAKERS
Ghosn lawyers withdraw
Carlos Ghosn’s Japanese lawyers, hired after the former Nissan Motor Co chairman was sent to jail in November last year, have asked to be removed from the case, potentially hurting the executive’s defense against the financial misconduct allegations that have shocked the global auto industry. Ghosn has selected Junichiro Hironaka as his new lawyer, the Sankei reported, citing unidentified people. The previous lawyers, including Motonari Otsuru, have notified the court that they will no longer represent him as counsel, an e-mailed statement showed yesterday.
UNITED KINGDOM
Inflation slows to 1.9%
Cheaper gasoline and energy brought cheer to households last month as consumer prices likely rose at their slowest annual pace in two years, data showed yesterday. Inflation probably eased to 1.9 percent, below the Bank of England’s 2 percent target for the first time since January 2017. The figures were expected to provide policymakers with further reasons to refrain from increasing interest rates as Brexit uncertainty grips the economy.
RENEWABLES
India poses opportunity
India is presenting a potential investment opportunity of US$50 billion in battery storage facilities that could help integrate renewable energy into the grid, replace polluting diesel-fueled power and boosting electric mobility, US energy firm AES Corp chief executive Andres Gluski said. AES completed the nation’s first 10-megawatt battery-storage system to support the grid in the capital, New Delhi. Built in partnership with Mitsubishi Corp for almost US$9 million, the project would demonstrate the benefits of energy storage to clients, regulators and the government, Gluski said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to