REFINING
Sinopec profits surge
Chinese energy giant Sinopec Corp (中國石油化工), the world’s largest oil refiner, yesterday said its annual profit last year soared by almost a quarter thanks to growing domestic demand for natural gas. Sinopec’s profit grew 23.4 percent to 63.1 billion yuan (US$9.4 billion), the company said in a report submitted to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Domestic consumption of natural gas rose 18.1 percent to 280.3 billion cubic meters as the country’s environmental regulations became “more stringent,” the company said.
GERMANY
Banks consulted over merger
Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz and his state secretaries held talks with nearly 40 international banks over the past few months amid deliberations over a possible merger of Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG, Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland reported. The conversations included European firms such as UBS Group AG and BNP Paribas SA, as well as global banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citibank and Bank of China Ltd (中國銀行), the report said, quoting a parliamentary question filed by Green Party politician Danyal Bayaz.
INTERNET
Alibaba buys InfinityAR
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) has acquired Israeli start-up Infinity Augmented Reality (InfinityAR), after investing in the company three years ago. InfinityAR would join Alibaba’s Israel Machine Vision Laboratory, the start-up said in a statement posted on its Web site on Thursday last week. Financial details were not disclosed, but Alibaba paid more than US$10 million, according to an estimate from market sources cited by Globes.
MALAYSIA
Snub imperils EU arms deal
The government might retaliate against an EU plan to curb palm oil use by purchasing new fighter jets from China instead of European arms companies, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday. The country is the world’s second-largest palm oil producer after neighboring Indonesia, and both countries have been at loggerheads with EU lawmakers over the crop’s cultivation, which has caused rampant deforestation and destruction of wildlife. Mahathir’s remarks come the day before a five-day international defense exhibition being hosted by the country.
INTERNET
EU might sanction Amazon
Amazon.com Inc is combining some offerings in a way similar to Alphabet Inc’s Google and could face sanctions to safeguard rules of competition, said Achim Wambach, chairman of Germany’s Monopolies Commission, an expert panel that advises the country’s federal government. “Amazon Prime connects different services as well,” Wambach told Welt am Sonntag in an interview, referring to the company’s membership program. The EU last year fined Google 4.3 billion euros (US$4.87 billion) for breaching antitrust rules.
INVESTMENT
Naspers mulls spin-offs
Naspers Ltd, the South African tech investor, is spinning off its main Internet businesses and listing them in Amsterdam in a push to boost its valuation. Naspers, which has a primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, plans to list the Internet businesses not based in South Africa — the bulk of the company — on the Euronext Amsterdam. The spinoff, to initially be called NewCo, is expected to be 75 percent-owned by Naspers, with the rest a free float.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last