AUSTRALIA
Parliament passes tax hikes
Lawmakers have narrowly approved tax increases for the wealthy that the government says will help it meet its pledge to deliver a budget surplus next year. The legislation will limit the availability of a tax rebate on health insurance premiums to lower and middle-income earners. It is expected to cost wealthy earners a total of A$2.4 billion (US$2.6 billion) over three years. The bill scraped through the House of Representatives yesterday by 71 votes to 70, but it is assured passage through the Senate with the guaranteed support of the government and Green Party senators. The government has promised to deliver a surplus of A$1.5 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1 this year, despite the European debt crisis slashing revenues.
FINANCE
China to buy more EU debt
Beijing has confidence in the euro and will keep buying the debt of European governments, People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said yesterday. The central bank chief’s comments came during a visit to Beijing by EU leaders for a Chinese-European summit. Appearing with EU leaders at a university, Zhou said Beijing had confidence in the eurozone and supported European efforts to end the continent’s financial troubles. China’s top economic official, Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), on Tuesday said his government was willing to play a bigger role in Europe’s recovery, but he made no financial commitment.
ECONOMY
S Korea jobless rate rises
South Korea’s unemployment rate last month rose from a month earlier amid growing global economic uncertainty, official figures showed yesterday. Statistics Korea said the rate was 3.5 percent last month, compared with 3 percent in December. However, the economy gained 536,000 jobs last month compared with a year earlier. Last month, South Korea posted its first trade deficit in two years, as falling overseas demand hit exports.
BANKING
BNP profit falls on debt
France’s biggest bank, BNP Paribas, yesterday said its net profit last year tumbled 22 percent to 6.05 billion euros (US$7.97 billion) after it set aside 3.2 billion euros to cover its exposure to debt-stricken Greece. BNP said its performance was also affected by financial market volatility toward the end of the year, driven by concerns the eurozone debt crisis could lead to a recession. The lender said it would pay shareholders a dividend of 1.20 euros per share, unlike its peers Societe Generale and Credit Agricole, which decided against any payout. The bank said it was still able to meet the new capital requirement of 9 percent set by regulators in the fallout from the global financial crisis, putting its level at 9.2 percent.
INVESTMENT
Berkshire adjusts portfolio
Warren Buffett’s company boosted its already sizeable stake in Wells Fargo & Co last year, while selling shares of Johnson & Johnson and Kraft Foods. Berkshire Hathaway Inc revealed a number of adjustments in its US$66.2 billion stock portfolio in documents it filed on Tuesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. By the end of last year, Berkshire added new investments in Liberty Media Corp and kidney dialysis firm DaVita Inc, while selling a small stake in Exxon Mobile. It increased investments in CVS Caremark, DirectTV, General Dynamics Corp, Intel and Visa. Berkshire officials did not immediately respond to a message on Tuesday.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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