PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi probed over drug
French healthcare company Sanofi SA said it had been put under investigation over a legal case relating to Depakine, a medication known to have caused birth malfunctions and slow neurological development after being taken during pregnancy. Sodium valproate, the active molecule of the drug, treats epilepsy and bipolar disorder. Sanofi, which said in January last year that it would not take part in any compensation plans on Depakine, said it would continue to “fully cooperate with the judicial authorities,” and was “confident” over the outcome of the procedure.
BANKING
Lender to raise funds
China Development Bank (中國國家開發銀行) plans to issue up to 14.25 billion yuan (US$2.04 billion) of one-year special bonds tomorrow to raise funds to help tackle a coronavirus outbreak, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The policy bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The news came as Chinese stocks ended higher, regaining some ground from the coronavirus-led rout that erased almost US$400 billion in market value from the Shanghai benchmark in the previous session.
BREWERS
Carlsberg bleak on outbreak
Carlsberg A/S forecast slower earnings growth for this year as a coronavirus outbreak in China threatens to weigh on beer consumption in Asia. Adjusted earnings before interest and tax last month rose 10.5 percent to 10.5 billion kroner (US$1.5 billion), matching analyst estimates. The company forecast mid-single-digit percentage growth this year. Carlsberg said currency shifts should boost earnings by about 50 million kroner this year, based on recent exchange. The company is especially exposed to a slowdown in Asia, where a new drunk-driving law in Vietnam is weighing on sales.
ENERGY
BP profit falls to US$4bn
British energy giant BP PLC yesterday said that annual net profit slid to US$4 billion last year, hit by weaker oil prices, as long-time chief executive Bob Dudley bowed out. The figure was down sharply compared with profit after tax of US$9.38 billion in 2018, the company said in a statement marking the end of Dudley’s time at the helm. It was announced in October last year that Bernard Looney, head of BP’s upstream division, would replace Dudley.
TECHNOLOGY
Relx to buy Emailage
European information provider Relx PLC has agreed to buy US Emailage Corp for about US$480 million in its latest deal to boost the fraud detection capabilities of its fastest-growing division, a source close to the company said. The deal is Relx’s third largest acquisition in a decade and follows the announcement of the purchase last month of US-based ID Analytics for US$375 million. Relx confirmed it was buying Emailage in a statement but did not give any details on the price.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla stock up 20 percent
Tesla Inc’s stock surged 20 percent on Monday in its largest one-day gain since 2013, fueled by a quarterly profit at Panasonic Corp’s battery business with the US automaker and an investor report predicting that its shares would rise more than 10-fold by 2024. Shares of Tesla have rallied by more than 30 percent since it posted its second consecutive quarterly profit on Wednesday last week.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by