■FOOD AND BEVERAGES
Super Group to list TDRs
Super Group Ltd (超級集團), the largest instant coffee producer in Southeast Asia, will list its Taiwan depository receipts (TDRs) on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday, underwriter Polaris Securities (寶來證券) said on Friday. Super Group has issued 40 million TDRs, which will each represent 0.5 common shares, to raise NT$560 million (US$17.55 million) for the Taiwan listing, according to the company’s prospectus. The TDRs have been set at NT$14 each, which represents a 25.52 percent premium over the company’s closing price on the Singapore Exchange on Wednesday, it said.
■ELECTRONICS
Toshiba recalls laptops
Japanese electronics maker Toshiba has recalled 41,000 laptop computers worldwide because of a fire risk, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said. “The notebook computers can overheat at the notebook’s plug-in to the AC adapter, posing a burn hazard to consumers,” the commission said in a notice issued on Thursday. The computers involved are the Satellite T135, Satellite T135D and Satellite ProT130. The safety commission said that Toshiba has received 129 reports of the computers overheating and deforming the plastic casing area around the AC adapter plug.
■CHINA
Lending to polluters curbed
China has ordered banks to stop new lending to companies that pollute excessively or consume too much energy, as part of a drive to make its economy more energy efficient, state media said yesterday. Shao Fujun (邵伏軍), director of the People’s Bank of China’s credit department, said the central bank had established a database to help banks review companies’ environmental records, the Shanghai Securities News reported. More than 30,000 pieces of information regarding companies’ environmental violations are in the database, the report said.
■ENVIRONMENT
BK boycotts palm oil maker
Environmentalists praised Burger King’s (BK) decision yesterday to stop buying palm oil from an Indonesian company accused of destroying rainforests. The US hamburger chain giant — which sealed a deal on Thursday to sell itself for US$3.26 billion to 3G Capital — said on Friday that it was canceling its contract with PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology over concerns it had not adopted sustainable farming practices. It cited an independent audit that found the company’s plantations had violated several regulations, including planting in peatland swamps and secondary forests.
■RETAIL
Carrefour sets India date
French supermarket giant Carrefour said on Friday it would open its first wholesale store in India by November, joining other foreign chains aiming to break into the country’s vast retail sector. The world’s second-largest retailer hopes the wholesale outlet in New Delhi will pave the way for a string of hypermarkets to serve consumers in the fast-growing economy.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Mattel suing MGA
Toymaker Mattel Inc has filed a lawsuit alleging MGA Entertainment fraudulently transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to keep Mattel from collecting on a judgment. The lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges MGA’s chief executive Isaac Larian and his family members received US$430 million between 2004 and 2008 to keep the money from MGA’s creditors, including Mattel.
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian movie has wowed international audiences and critics, securing multiple Oscar nominations and drawing fresh interest in the Latin American giant’s film industry. Experts say the success of The Secret Agent, which has won four Oscar nominations, a year after I Am Still Here won Brazil its first Oscar, is no fluke, with a bit of a push from the country’s political climate. “This is neither a coincidence nor a miracle. It is the result of a lot of work, consistent policies, and, of course, talent,” Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio International Film
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
IShowSpeed, a 21-year-old African-American influencer, has raced a cheetah, leapt with Maasai warriors and drawn huge crowds in a month-long tour of Africa that has also busted cliches about the continent. The YouTube and Twitch star’s tour, which started on Dec. 29 last year, took him to 20 countries, showing his tens of millions of followers a different side of Africa as he visited a diamond mine in Botswana, discovered Ethiopia’s rich cuisine and attended the Africa Cup of Nations football final in Morocco. IShowSpeed — born in Cincinnati, Ohio as Darren Jason Watkins Jr. — is one of the most followed
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