LUXURY GOODS
Hermes sales rise 14.7%
Global trade tensions might have sapped growth for many firms, but luxury handbag maker Hermes International SCA yesterday posted a double-digit percentage rise in second-quarter sales thanks in part to China. In the second quarter the firm recorded a 14.7 percent increase in sales to 1.67 billion euros (US$1.87 billion), beating the consensus of analyst forecasts compiled by both Factset and Bloomberg. Over the first half of the year sales rose by 15.1 percent to 3.28 billion euros.
SOUTH AFRICA
Minister warns on tax
The nation’s 2019-2020 tax revenues could be “significantly lower” than budgeted for and the government might need to borrow more than planned, Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni said yesterday, also citing the cost of support for struggling power utility Eskom. “This could substantially increase the government’s borrowing requirements for 2019-2020, which will require [the] government to revise its funding strategy and current weekly bond issuance at levels beyond what we had planned,” Mboweni told parliament.
INDIA
AIIB drops capital project
The Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has dropped plans to finance a new capital for the state of Andhra Pradesh, after the World Bank pulled its support on Friday last week. The construction of the city, known as Amaravati, is the brainchild of the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who lost power in elections in May.“AIIB is no longer considering the Amaravati Sustainable Infrastructure and Institutional Development Project for funding,” AIIB spokeswoman Laurel Ostfield said in an e-mailed statement.
CHINA
Beef imports soar
Beef imports by the world’s top meat consumer jumped to an all-time high last month as the spread of African swine fever through the nation boosts demand for alternative sources of animal protein. Inbound shipments surged 61 percent on the year to 133,744 tonnes and were up from 123,720 tonnes in May, customs data showed yesterday. Overseas pork purchases last month rose 63 percent from a year earlier to 160,467 tonnes.
BANKING
Santander profit rises 5%
Banco Santander SA posted the best results in years as its surging businesses in the Americas made up for a lackluster performance in Europe. Underlying profit rose to 5 percent to 2.1 billion euros in the second quarter, beating estimates. Banco Santander chairman Ana Botin called it the best quarterly performance in eight years on an that basis. Net income fell due to a one-time charge of 706 million euros for restructuring in Spain and the UK.
BANKING
Investcorp raises US$142m
Investcorp Bank BSC raised about 10 billion rupees (US$142 million) for its first India private equity fund, just months after the Bahrain-based alternative asset manager opened in the nation. The fund is to focus on investments in the consumer, financial services and healthcare industries, and has already deployed 2.7 billion rupees in four companies — Incred, ASG, Zolo and Citykart — Investcorp said in a statement. The limited partners of the fund comprise Indian banks, insurance companies, family offices and international fund of funds, the statement said.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained