GREECE
Debt extension needed
Athens must negotiate with private bondholders to extend the repayment period of its debt, an economic adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a Greek newspaper on Saturday. If the nation pursues such talks, it would make it easier for Germany to agree extending the repayment period of the loans the debt-laden country has obtained under a 110 billion euro (US$154 billion) EU-IMF bailout, Real News quoted Lars Feld as saying in an interview. Lowering the interest rate on the country’s bailout loans is not likely to be part of the package, he added. His comments came before euro zone leaders meet on Friday to hammer out a comprehensive package of measures to deal with the debt crisis. EU heads of government are expected to sign off on the deal at a meeting in Brussels on March 24 and March 25.
BANKING
Spanish banks scramble
Spain’s ailing regional savings banks are scrambling to raise billions of euros of fresh funds to meet strict new capital requirements by a Thursday deadline. The country’s 17 savings banks, known as cajas, are weighed down by loans that turned sour after the collapse of a housing bubble in 2008 and are at the heart of fears the country could need an Irish-style international rescue. Last month the government approved stricter rules on the amount of rock-solid core capital that banks must hold on their balance sheets, seeking to shore up confidence in the battered economy. Under the new rules, savings banks must raise the proportion of core capital they hold to 8 percent of total assets from the current 6 percent or 10 percent if they are unlisted.
ENERGY
US gas prices could rise
US natural gas prices may rise as the world’s biggest economy recovers and stricter pollution laws prompt a shift to the fuel, Deutsche Bank AG said. “Tighter US Environmental Protection Agency rules on coal, stronger gross domestic product and the potential for liquefied natural gas [LNG] exports all point to an eventual recovery in gas prices,” said Washington-based analyst Adam Sieminski in a report on Friday. Proposed US anti-pollution laws may boost demand for natural gas by 57m3 a day as gas-fired units replace coal-fired generators, Deutsche Bank said. The US economy may grow by 3.5 percent this year and 4 percent next year, from 2.8 percent last year, it said. Surging crude oil prices and the contractual ties of most international gas prices to oil increases the potential for US LNG exports, it said. Gas prices outside the US and UK are typically linked to crude oil prices.
FINANCE
Singapore-ASX deal touted
Singapore Exchange Ltd, pursuing a takeover of ASX Ltd, said the deal would help companies trading on the Australian stock exchange attract money to expand. “We need to help listed companies’ investors get easier and cheaper transactions,” chief executive Magnus Bocker said yesterday on Australian Broadcasting Corp’s Inside Business program. The Singapore bourse offered on Oct. 25 to buy ASX in a cash-and-share transaction then valued at A$8.4 billion (US$8.5 billion), a 42 percent premium to ASX’s share price at the time. The Singapore exchange, seeking approval for the transaction, expects to file an application to Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board within 10 days, Bocker said.
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
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
RSS