INSURANCE
ING to sell arm to Gruposura
ING Groep NV said in Amsterdam it has agreed to sell most of its Latin American businesses to Gruposura for about 2.68 billion euros (US$3.81 billion). ING says it will receive 2.615 billion euros in cash and Gruposura will take on 65 million euros in debt for the businesses, which include ING’s insurance, investment management and pension management activities. The deal does not include ING’s 36 percent stake in Brazilian insurer Sul America SA. The deal should close by year end pending regulatory approval and ING said yesterday it expects to book a 1 billion euro gain.
FINANCE
Yorkshire to buy Egg
British mortgage lender Yorkshire Building Society is to buy the mortgage and savings business of Egg Banking from American bank Citigroup, as Citi continues to sell non-core assets after its bailout during the credit crisis. Yorkshire, owned by its customers, said the Egg businesses it was acquiring were comprised of a ￡2.5 billion (US$4.1 billion) savings book and a ￡430 million mortgage book. It added that it would also acquire the Egg brand. Yorkshire did not disclose how much it paid for the Egg businesses.
AUTOMOBILE
Honda recalls 200,000 cars
Japan’s Honda Motor said in Tokyo yesterday it would recall about 200,000 passenger cars globally because of defective engine parts. The company said it had received 63 customer reports in Japan of engine malfunctions as a result of the defect, but added that none had led to accidents. In Japan alone, the car maker will recall more than 50,000 units of three models — the Stream, Civic and Crossroad — that were produced at its domestic plants between July 2008 and July last year, it said. Honda will exchange engine bolts that may cause trouble with the motor cooling system and that could eventually cause the engines to stop.
AUTOMOBILE
Earthquake recovery mixed
Japanese automakers are reporting mixed vehicle production figures as the industry pushes toward recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Nissan Motor Co made 419,831 vehicles worldwide last month, up 18.5 percent from the same time last year. It said yesterday that the figure was an all-time record for a single month. Global sales rose more than 13 percent. Toyota’s global production fell 9.2 percent to 593,839 vehicles. The result is a vast improvement from the 49 percent plunge it recorded in May. Toyota Motor Corp forecasts a return to full production later this year. Honda Motor Co is facing a rockier road. Its output worldwide in June fell 44.5 percent to 168,373 vehicles. Domestic sales slumped 36 percent and exports plunged more than 60 percent.
ELECTRONICS
Loscher to stay at Siemens
Siemens is to extend the contract of its boss Peter Loscher until 2017, according to a report in German daily Handelsblatt that was due to be published yesterday. Sources close to the German company quoted by the newspaper said that Siemens’ supervisory board would take the decision next week, a year before Loscher’s contract is due to end. Loscher, who is Austrian, joined Siemens in 2007 following a corruption scandal that lost the company more than 1 billion euros in fines and legal bills and forced several senior executives to stand down. He was the first outsider to become director of Siemens and subsequently overhauled the company.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS