FINANCE
MUFG to buy bank arm
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) plans to buy the project financing business of the Royal Bank of Scotland for an estimated ￡4 billion (US$6.4 billion), a report in Tokyo said yesterday. The leading Japanese banking group plans to take RBS’ loan assets, particularly infrastructure loans in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as some of the bank’s sales forces, the Nikkei newspaper said. MUFG and the British government, which controls 84 percent of the international banking group, are trying to sign an official deal by year-end and complete the transaction in the first half of next year, the newspaper said.
FERTILIZER
Phosagro to bid for Potash
Russian fertilizer company Phosagro is planning to bid for Canada’s Potash Corp, the world’s top fertilizer maker, rivaling a bid by BHP Billiton, business daily Vedomosti reported in Moscow yesterday. Phosagro chairman Vladimir Litvinenko has asked Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to approve a potential deal and request financing from Russian banks, the newspaper said, citing a letter from Litvinenko to Putin. The news comes as Canada insisted on Tuesday it has made no decision yet on BHP’s US$39 billion offer for Potash.
AUTOMOBILES
BMW profits skyrocket
Net profit at the world’s leading luxury car maker, BMW, leapt 11-fold in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period a year earlier, to 874 million euros (US$1.2 billion), the group said in Frankfurt, Germany, yesterday. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a gain of 914 percent to 791 million euros as German premium car makers benefit from strengthening markets in Brazil, China, India and Russia.
BANKING
Societe Generale back on top
French bank Societe Generale yesterday in Paris posted better-than-expected third-quarter profits of 896 million euros, more than double the same period last year. The figure was much higher than the 716 million euros forecast by Dow Jones Newswires analysts. “It’s the confirmation of the recovery of Societe Generale,” chief executive Frederic Oudea said on the financial news channel CNBC. Societe General lost billions of euros in a rogue trader scandal in 2008.
ALCOHOL
Brewer posts profit decline
Brussels-based Brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev has posted a 7.2 percent decline in net profit for its third quarter because of asset sales last year. AB InBev says net profit fell to US$1.43 billion from US$1.55 billion a year earlier. Sales also fell to US$9.32 billion from US$9.76 billion. The company said on Tuesday its volumes remained mostly stable, as growth in Brazil, China and Russia offset drops in Western Europe and the US.
CREDIT
MasterCard profits rise
MasterCard Inc said in New York on Tuesday that increased use of credit and debit cards, especially overseas, helped lift its third-quarter profit by 15 percent. The payments processor recorded a net income of US$518 million, or US$3.94 per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30. That compares with US$452 million, or US$3.45 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 5 percent to US$1.43 billion, from US$1.36 billion last year.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
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