BANKING
HSBC banks on lira collapse
HSBC Holdings PLC earned about US$120 million in a single day during Turkey’s financial crisis last year as it profited from the collapse of the lira, according to a regulatory disclosure made by the bank. The Turkish currency’s collapse over the summer hit trading profits at some investment banks with exposure to the country, such as Barclays PLC. However, HSBC benefited from the fall in the lira’s value. The outsized gains “driven by volatility in Turkish lira spot” were more than twice as big as predicted by HSBC’s market risk models, according to a filing published on Tuesday alongside the bank’s full-year results. The lender said that the profit was the biggest of three exceptions it found when it back-tested its model against actual gains and losses for the year.
TECHNOLOGY
AccountGuard expands reach
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would offer its cybersecurity service AccountGuard to 12 new markets in Europe, including Germany, France and Spain, to close security gaps and protect customers in political space from hacking. Microsoft has detected attacks, which occurred between September and December last year, targeting employees of the German Council on Foreign Relations and European offices of the Aspen Institute and the German Marshall Fund, the company said. The AccountGuard service would also be available in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovakia. German officials are trying to bolster cybersecurity after a far-reaching data breach by a 20-year-old student laid bare the vulnerability of Europe’s largest economy.
BEVERAGES
PepsiCo buys CytoSport
PepsiCo Inc’s new chief executive officer Ramon Laguarta has made his first acquisition, purchasing the maker of sports and wellness products Muscle Milk from Hormel Foods Corp for an undisclosed amount. Hormel Foods — the maker of Spam and Skippy peanut butter — announced the sale of its CytoSport unit in a statement on Tuesday. The deal is expected to close in 30 to 60 days. Hormel chief executive officer Jim Snee said that PepsiCo is “in a strong position to grow this dynamic business.” CytoSport makes Muscle Milk and Evolve Protein products, which include protein powders, shakes and bars. Both are marketed as healthy, natural products to an active set of consumers — a segment of the market that has experienced growth.
MINING
Glencore net profits fall
Glencore PLC yesterday said that its net profits tumbled 41 percent last year, although the mining and commodity trading giant said operating profits rose to a record level. Net profit fell to US$3.4 billion, but the Switzerland-based firm said its measure of operating profit — adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization costs — rose by 8 percent to a record US$15.8 billion. The firm’s commodity trading business saw its operating earnings fall by 17 percent to US$2.4 billion, but mining rose 15 percent to US$13.3 billion. Chief executive officer Ivan Glasenberg said in an earnings statement that “we achieved these results in a challenging operating environment” and that Glencore’s strong cash generation would allow it to pay out roughly US$2.8 billion in dividends to shareholders.
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],”