FINANCE
Hana to buy KEB stake
South Korea’s Hana Financial Group said yesterday it would take over industry peer Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) in a deal worth more than US$4 billion. Hana, the country’s fourth-largest banking group, will pay Lone Star Funds of the US about 4.7 trillion won (US$4.1 billion) for a 51 percent stake in KEB, it said in a regulatory filing. The announcement finally brings the curtain down on Lone Star’s troubled attempts to sell the stake it bought for US$1.3 billion seven years ago. Following the Hana board’s approval yesterday, group chairman Kim Seung-yu plans to sign the deal with Lone Star Funds chairman John Grayken today.
FINANCE
Caterpillar plans HK bonds
Caterpillar, the world’s largest heavy equipment maker, is planning a 1 billion yuan (US$150 million), two-year bond issue in Hong Kong, sources close to the deal said yesterday. The US company looks set to become the second non-financial foreign firm to tap Hong Kong’s yuan-denominated bond market. Last week, the firm announced plans to build a US$300 million plant in Tianjin, China, to produce its 3500-series machinery engines for customers in the country and the Asia-Pacific.
RETAIL
Retail sales finally rise
Sales at Japanese department stores logged the first rise in 32 months last month, helped by clothing demand in cool weather and a recovery of sales in urban areas, an industry group said yesterday. Sales at 261 stores across the nation came to ¥512.1 billion (US$6 billion) last month, up 0.6 percent from a year earlier, the Japan Department Stores Association said. Store sales expanded in Tokyo and the nine other biggest cities in Japan, offsetting drops in provincial areas, it said.
GERMANY
Confidence hits boom levels
Business confidence has risen to levels above the boom years of 2006 and 2007, the Ifo institute said in Berlin yesterday, as Europe’s top economy continued a strong recovery. The widely watched reading of sentiment rose to 109.3 points this month, compared with 107.7 points last monmth, its sixth consecutive rise. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the indicator to stay flat at 107.6 points.
UNITED STATES
Growth remains slow
The economy will grow at a much slower pace than expected this year and next, as unemployment remains stubbornly high, according to bleak US Federal Reserve estimates published on Tuesday. Painting a stark picture of the short-term fate of the world’s largest economy, minutes from the Fed’s last meeting showed that growth would be about half a percentage point less than expected this year and next year. Minutes showed that already anemic growth predictions have been slashed to between 2.4 percent and 2.5 percent this year and between 3 percent and 3.6 percent in the next.
MUSIC
Beatles iTunes sales soaring
The Beatles sold more than 450,000 albums and more than 2 million individual songs in the week since their music appeared on Apple’s iTunes, Billboard said on Tuesday. Billboard said the best-selling album in the US was Abbey Road and the best-selling song was Here Comes the Sun. Apple’s iTunes began selling the music of the Beatles on Nov. 16 after years of tortuous negotiations with Apple Corp, the Beatles’ company and EMI, their record label.
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 held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
‘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
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