AUTOMAKERS
Carlos Ghosn posts bail
Former Nissan Motor Co chairman Carlos Ghosn paid ¥500 million (US$4.5 million) in bail, the Tokyo District Court said yesterday, clearing the way for his release, but under strict conditions, including needing the court’s permission to see his wife. Prosecutors appealed the decision by the court earlier in the day to grant release on bail. They say he might tamper with evidence or influence witnesses. Ghosn was arrested in November last year, released on bail last month, but re-arrested earlier this month on new allegations.
ENTERTAINMENT
Nintendo misses estimates
Nintendo Co posted earnings below analyst estimates on the Switch console’s struggle to maintain momentum, but forecast growth as the device enters its third year. Operating profit was ¥29.7 billion in the three months ending last month, compared with the ¥36 billion average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. For the coming fiscal year, operating profit would be ¥260 billion, it said. Nintendo expects to ship 18 million Switch consoles this year, compared with 17 million units last year.
CHEMICALS
Bayer Q1 profit slumps
German giant Bayer AG said its first-quarter net profit slumped by more than one-third as it booked a big charge amid a flood of lawsuits over its subsidiary Monsanto Co’s Roundup weedkiller. Amid the legal entanglements and ongoing costs integrating Monsanto, Bayer’s first-quarter earnings slumped by 36 percent to 1.241 billion euros (US$1.38 billion). Bayer said it now faced lawsuits from 13,400 plaintiffs over the glyphosate weedkiller.
COMPUTING
Cloud powers Microsoft
Microsoft Corp’s ongoing push to get automakers, retailers and other businesses onto its cloud computing platform helped power the company’s fiscal third-
quarter earnings ahead of Wall Street expectations. The company on Wednesday posted earnings of US$8.8 billion, up 19 percent from the same period last year. The Redmond, Washington-based company said it had profit of US$1.14 per share and US$30.6 billion in reported revenue, a year-over-year increase of 14 percent.
BANKING
RBS head to step down
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) PLC yesterday said that RBS chief executive officer Ross McEwan has resigned after steering it to a “stronger” financial position over the past five years. McEwan has been at the helm since 2013 and helped guide the group to a steady recovery after its dramatic bailout by the British government during the 2008 global financial crisis. He has a 12-month notice period and is to remain at the helm until a successor has been appointed, the Edinburgh-based group said.
BANKING
ADB affirms China lending
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) sees value in continuing to lend to China, president Takehiko Nakao said yesterday in response to calls for the institution to stop granting loans to the world’s second-largest economy. The financial institution’s lending to China “is not huge,” so it would not crowd out borrowers from poorer nations, Nakao said. ADB’s committed loans to China have fallen to 12 percent of its total last year from 19 percent in 2013, he said.
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