JAPAN
Yahoo to ban ivory sales
Yahoo Japan Corp plans to end the sale of ivory on the nation’s biggest online auction site, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday, finally joining competitors in a ban. Yahoo Japan is to end ivory trading, blamed by wildlife campaigners for perpetuating an illegal international black market, from Nov. 1, the sources said. They declined to be identified as the information is not public. Rival auction sites Rakuten Inc and Mercari Inc banned ivory sales two years ago.
TRANSPORTATION
Grab to expand in Vietnam
Ride-hailing giant Grab yesterday said that it would invest US$500 million over five years in Vietnam, the company’s latest expansion in a key Southeast Asian market. The Singapore-based firm, which operates in eight nations, has already invested more than US$200 million in Vietnam since entering the market in 2014. The investment would be used for new services in areas such as financial technology and logistics.
ENTERTAINMENT
Tencent Music falls on probe
Tencent Music Entertainment Group (騰訊音樂) yesterday fell the most in five months as China’s antitrust authority investigates exclusive licensing deals it forged with the world’s biggest record labels. The Chinese State Administration of Market Regulation, which launched the probe in January, is scrutinizing the Shenzhen-based company’s dealings with music labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group Corp. Shares of Tencent Music slid 6.8 percent in New York, marking their steepest drop since March 20.
BANKING
Japan profit ranking released
Morgan Stanley kept its position as the most profitable investment bank in Japan last year, as demand for overseas bonds from yield-hungry investors helped offset weakness in its trading business. Net income at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co rose 8 percent to ¥21.3 billion (US$201.5 million) in the year that ended in March, the highest among 10 large global banks that filed annual financial reports in Japan. A jump in trading losses at Goldman Sachs Japan Co helped push the US bank into third place behind BNP Paribas Securities (Japan) Ltd.
AVIATION
Virgin cuts jobs, to review
Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd, the airline backed by China’s HNA Group Co (海航集團), yesterday announced 750 job cuts and a wide-ranging operational review after reporting a seventh consecutive annual loss. The shares fell to a decade-low. The job losses, which affect almost 8 percent of the airline’s total workforce, is to shrink corporate and head office staff, Virgin Australia said in a statement. It plans to review its fleet and routes, and would cut some international and domestic flights. All contracts with suppliers are also being reassessed.
MEXICO
Gas pipeline deal reached
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday said that his government has reached a deal with gas pipeline operators to settle a dispute over contracts signed under his predecessor, defusing a row that had spooked investors. The deal, reached with four companies based in the US, Canada and Mexico, would save the government US$4.5 billion, Lopez Obrador said.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li