SWITZERLAND
Q1 GDP rises 0.6 percent
Economic growth accelerated more than economists expected in the first quarter, with the nation’s GDP rising 0.6 percent from a year earlier. The expansion was driven by above-average growth in consumer spending, as well as construction and investment in equipment such as vehicles and information-technology services. The fourth-quarter reading was revised up to 0.3 percent, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. However, exports last month dropped 0.6 percent, a second consecutive decline, according to a statement yesterday.
BANKING
PBOC injects funds
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is acting to increase the supply of short-term funding to banks after the seizure of a regional lender rattled domestic markets. The central bank injected a total of 150 billion yuan (US$21.7 billion) through open-market operations yesterday and on Monday, the most since the week ending on March 8. Regulators announced last week that they would take control of Baoshang Bank Co (包商銀行), fueling worries of failures elsewhere and driving up funding costs.
BANKING
MAS extends Menon’s term
Ravi Menon’s term as managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) was extended for another two years, providing stability at the central bank at a time of growing economic risks. Menon’s new term takes effect from Saturday, the MAS said in a statement yesterday. The 55-year-old Menon was also reappointed to the MAS board for two years.
ENTERTAINMENT
Canal+ buying M7
Vivendi SA’s Canal+ agreed to buy pay-TV operator M7 Group for just over 1 billion euros (US$1.2 billion) to expand in Europe, where it is vying for subscribers with Netflix Inc. The purchase of M7 from private equity firm Astorg Partners SAS pushes Canal+ into seven European countries, bringing its total subscribers to almost 20 million, Vivendi said in a statement on Monday. M7, with 3 million subscribers, operates a largely direct-to-home satellite business in central and eastern Europe, the Netherlands and Belgium.
AUTOMAKERS
VW changing battery plan
Volkswagen AG (VW) is making changes to its battery-purchasing plan worth about 50 billion euros (US$56 billion) over concerns that one of its supply deals, with Samsung SDI Co, might unravel, according to people familiar with the matter. Samsung initially agreed to deliver batteries for just over 20 gigawatt hours, enough to power 200,000 cars with 100 kilowatt hour packs, before different views on production volume and schedule emerged during detailed negotiations, the people said. The impasse cut pledged supplies to less than 5 gigawatt hours, they said.
CRIME
Batista fined US$134m
Eike Batista, once the nation’s richest man, has been fined about US$134 million for insider trading, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil said on Monday, as the ex-billionaire remains under house arrest pending an appeal against a 30-year jail sentence. The 62-year-old also was banned for seven years from running a publicly traded company. Batista was accused of selling shares in his oil company OGX in 2013 when he knew it would be unable to explore blocks acquired at an auction in 2007.
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],”