SINGAPORE
Economy to slow next year
The economy is likely to grow 15 percent this year, but expansion will moderate to 4 to 6 percent next year, the government said yesterday following the release of third-quarter data. The government earlier predicted 13-15 percent GDP growth this year. The Ministry of Trade and Industry said the biomedical and financial sectors would drive growth in the fourth quarter with manufacturing expansion slowing down. GDP growth in the third quarter from a year ago moderated to 10.6 percent, compared to record 19.5 percent growth in the second quarter. Manufacturing growth fell to 14.3 percent in the third quarter from 46.1 percent in the previous three months.
RETAIL
Carrefour cancels sell-off
French retail giant Carrefour said yesterday it had canceled a planned sale of its stores in Malaysia and Singapore, deciding instead to build up its market share in the Asian nations. Carrefour, the world’s second-biggest retailer behind US colossus Walmart, said this week it was offloading its 42 Thai stores, and had been looking to sell its 23 Malaysian and two Singaporean outlets as well. The firm said it had decided to retain its presence in Malaysia and Singapore, after the planned auction did not attract bids that would have justified proceeding.
BANKING
ICBC mulls Kwangju takeover
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is considering taking over South Korea’s Kwangju Bank, a report said yesterday, as the world’s largest bank by market value moves to expand overseas. The newspaper Dong-A Ilbo cited financial industry sources as saying ICBC had expressed an intention to bid for the regional bank based in the southwestern city of Kwangju. Kwangju Bank has assets of 17.9 trillion won (US$15.7 billion) and is a subsidiary of Woori Financial Holdings, South Korea’s largest financial holding company by assets.
AUTOMOBILES
GM returns to public trading
General Motors Co (GM), which went bankrupt last year after almost a century on the New York Stock Exchange, returns to public trading yesterday following an initial public offering (IPO) that raised more than US$20 billion. GM’s owners, including the US Treasury, sold US$15.8 billion of common shares at US$33 each on Wednesday in the second-largest US IPO on record, according to a statement. The company’s offering of US$4.35 billion of preferred shares and an overallotment option may boost the total to US$23.1 billion, more than the US$22.1 billion raised by Beijing-based Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (中國農業銀行) in the biggest IPO of common stock in history.
AIRLINES
Air France returns to profit
Air France-KLM said on Wednesday it returned to profit in its second quarter, taking advantage of an improved situation in the civil aviation sector as a whole to raise its financial targets. The carrier reported net earnings of 290 million euros (US$392 million) in the June-September period after a loss of 147 million euros a year earlier. At the operating level, reflecting core activities, the company earned 576 million euros against a loss of 47 million in the same period of last year. Sales rose 18.6 percent to 6.64 billion euros. Air France-KLM is now looking ahead to an operating profit of more than 300 million euros in its financial year to March next year. For the full fiscal year 2009 Air France-KLM suffered an operating loss of 1.28 billion euros.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose up to 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductor exports to the US to encourage chip manufacturers to move their production facilities to the US, but experts are questioning his strategy, warning it could harm industries on both sides. “I’m very confused and surprised that the Trump administration would try and do this,” Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst and founder of TECHnalysis Research in California, said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Wednesday. “It seems to reflect the fact that they don’t understand how the semiconductor industry really works,” O’Donnell said. Economic sanctions would
‘NO DISRUPTION’: A US trade association said that it was ready to work with the US administration to streamline the program’s requirements and achieve shared goals The White House is seeking to renegotiate US CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements, two sources familiar with the matter told reporters. The people, along with a third source, said that the new US administration is reviewing the projects awarded under the 2022 law, meant to boost US domestic semiconductor output with US$39 billion in subsidies. Washington plans to renegotiate some of the deals after assessing and changing current requirements, the sources said. The extent of the possible changes and how they would affect agreements already finalized was not immediately clear. It was not known