BANKING
HSBC optimistic on progress
HSBC is making good progress on its turnaround plan and showing “significant traction” on factors it can control, although the eurozone crisis and increased regulation are creating stiff headwinds, its chief executive said yesterday. “We’ve made encouraging progress for getting the bank into shape. We’ve identified where we want to be in the future — first and foremost in our two home markets of the UK and Hong Kong — and 20 priority growth markets,” CEO Stuart Gulliver told reporters on a conference call. HSBC said it had made “material progress” and is on track to meet its target of getting return on equity above 12 percent and to cut costs by US$3.5 billion a year.
SPAIN
Economy back to recession
Spain’s GDP shrank by 0.3 percent in the first quarter after contracting at the same rate in the final three months last year, confirming a return to recession, according to final statistics published yesterday. The figures confirm preliminary data issued in April by the National Statistics Institute (INE), underscoring the precarious state of the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy, which is battling a record high 24.4 percent unemployment rate. An INE statement said that weaker domestic demand, including household consumption and public spending, had undermined growth as Spain struggles with austerity measures.
BANKING
Shareholders sue JPMorgan
Shareholders of JPMorgan Chase & Co have filed two lawsuits against the biggest US bank, accusing it and its leaders of taking excessive risk and causing a monumental US$2 billion trading loss. One suit was filed by California shareholder James Baker. A second was filed by shareholder Arizona-based Saratoga Advantage Trust’s financial services portfolio. Meanwhile, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Wednesday the bureau has launched a preliminary investigation of JPMorgan following the US$2 billion trading loss at the bank. Mueller’s comment at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was the first on-the-record confirmation of the probe.
SMARTPHONES
LG unveils new Optimus
South Korea’s LG Electronics yesterday unveiled a new version of its Optimus smartphone with greater memory and a more powerful battery, in an attempt to catch up with its rivals. The company said the Optimus LTE 2 — which will be released in the domestic market “soon” — offers as much memory as a notebook computer, allowing consumers to use several applications simultaneously. A new battery gives 40 percent more running time on a single charge than the Optimus LTE 1 released in October last year. LG gave no timetable for overseas sales of the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) phone, which uses a faster mobile network that is available mainly in South Korea, Japan, the US and parts of Europe.
SPORTS GOODS
Adidas sues copycats
Adidas AG has sued to stop a US sporting goods retailer and a skateboarding equipment maker from selling sneakers with three parallel diagonal stripes, a design it said looks too much like its own. The world’s second-largest sporting goods company claimed that sneakers made by World Industries Inc and sold by Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp are knock-offs that infringe many Adidas trademarks. Adidas first used the three-stripe motif in 1952 and began trademarking it in the US in 1994.
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).
RSS