South Korea will send a team of investigators to the Hong Kong branch of Deutsche Bank’s securities unit as part of a probe into allegedly unfair stock transactions, officials said yesterday.
South Korean Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Kim Jong-chang told journalists that the move was part of an investigation into suspected involvement of the securities unit in a heavy sell-off of South Korean stocks last month.
FOREIGN INVESTORS
On Nov. 11, the benchmark KOSPI fell 2.7 percent, dropping steeply in the last half-hour of trade as selling by foreign investors overwhelmed the market, and the watchdog launched an inquiry.
“They will go to Hong Kong to meet with those who were concerned with the issue,” Kim was quoted as saying by Yonhap Infomax financial service. “We are investigating whether there were any wrongdoings.”
‘UNFAIR TRANSACTIONS’
A senior official of the FSS told reporters that it was investigating whether the Hong Kong branch of Deutsche Bank’s securities unit had been involved in “unfair transactions” — an offence under South Korea’s business laws.
“We are investigating whether the securities unit was involved in unfair transactions,” the official said on condition of anonymity, declining to elaborate.
The FSS said last month that foreign investors’ net sales on Nov. 11 totaled 1.34 trillion won (US$1.2 billion), with about 1.6 trillion won in sales coming from Deutsche Bank.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS