AUSTRALIA
Macquarie to buy AirTrunk
The country is set for its second-largest private equity deal of the past year, with Macquarie Group Ltd’s infrastructure arm agreeing to buy most of data-center firm AirTrunk. Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets finalized an agreement late last week to take control of AirTrunk, people familiar with the matter said. The investment values the business at about A$3 billion (US$2.1 billion), the people said. AirTrunk chief executive officer Robin Khuda would keep a minority stake after the transaction, the people said. AirTrunk is currently owned by investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s special situations arm and TPG Sixth Street Partners.
GERMANY
State generates surplus
The federal government made a low double-digit billion euro surplus last year, Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported yesterday, thanks to higher tax revenues and record-low interest rates. Unused special funds — including money set aside for renovating schools or incentives for fighting climate change — also contributed to the surplus, Sueddeutsche added, citing government sources.
INVESTMENT
UAE to spend in Indonesia
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is to invest US$22.8 billion in Indonesia through a sovereign wealth fund being set up by Indonesian President Joko Widodo as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to finance billions of dollars of infrastructure and energy projects. The UAE plans to invest in building Indonesia’s new capital and also develop properties in Aceh Province, the cabinet secretariat said in a statement, citing Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan.
SOUTH KOREA
Chinese tourist boom likely
The nations’ years-long disputes with China are being resolved, and analysts at Nomura Holdings Inc expect Chinese tourists to return en masse to the nation of K-pop. Nomura said in a note on Friday last week that Chinese group-package trips are resuming and received confirmation from a major travel agency in the country that its tour companies have started offering services to domestic customers for the upcoming spring festival.
CHINA
Goldman to double staff
Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to double its headcount in the Chinese Communist Party-ruled nation over the next five years, provided it continues down the path of opening up its financial markets. The ambition to raise staffing to 600 is part of a five-year plan drawn up by executives at the New York-based investment bank, said a person familiar with matter who asked not to be identified discussing confidential plans.
AUTOMAKERS
Porsche deliveries up 10%
Porsche AG shrugged off widespread industry malaise, reporting record deliveries for last year and predicting that its first all-electric model Taycan would foster further growth this year. Global deliveries rose 10 percent to 280,800 vehicles last year, driven mainly by strong consumer appetite for the Macan and Cayenne sport utility vehicles, Porsche said in a statement yesterday. “We’re optimistic that we can sustain the high demand in 2020,” Porsche sales chief Detlev von Platen said in the statement. Sales momentum should benefit from “the introduction of some new models and full order books for the Taycan,” he said.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six