Banking
World Bank position filled
The World Bank on Friday named Cai Jinyong (蔡金勇), a Chinese national who worked for Goldman Sachs, to head its private-sector investment arm, placing a candidate from an emerging market country in a key post at the global development lender. The World Bank said it had picked Cai to be executive vice president and chief executive of the International Finance Corp, which invested US$20 billion in private-sector projects in developing countries last year. He previously served as a managing director at Goldman Sachs Group, and was involved in Goldman’s management globally, IFC said in statement. Emerging market countries have long pushed to have more say in the selection process of the heads of the World Bank and the IMF. Cai’s appointment is the first post to be filled by new World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, since he assumed his position on July 1.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault announces job cuts
French automaker Renault said on Friday that a voluntary job cut plan at its struggling South Korean unit Samsung Motors could affect up to 80 percent of its staff, or almost 4,700 workers. Workers would be let go “on a voluntary basis, with severance pay of up to two years pay depending on seniority,” the spokeswoman said. Employees who agree to leave are also to get two years of education fees for children and other allowances. Renault had said earlier in the day in South Korea that it would offer some staff at the company voluntary retirement, but did not say how many might be affected. Renault Samsung Motors has seen its sales wilt under pressure from South Korea’s dominant Hyundai-Kia group.
Airlines
Kingfisher reveals losses
Cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines yesterday said quarterly losses more than doubled from a year earlier, fuelling fresh doubts about the future of the private Indian carrier. Net loss widened to 6.60 billion rupees (US$120 million) in the financial quarter to June from a loss of 2.63 billion rupees in the same period last year, as revenues slumped due to reduced operations. Kingfisher — which has never posted a profit since its launch in 2005 -— said it still hoped to “get recapitalized” and added it was “in discussion with several strategic and financial investors to bring in fresh capital”. The company, which is carrying a US$1.4 billion debt-load, did not identify the potential investors.
BANKING
European crisis fund
Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen on Friday proposed creating a bank-financed European crisis fund to recapitalize ailing banks, as part of a three-pronged supervision mechanism.
In an interview conducted on Aug. 1 and published on Friday, Katainen proposed a single European banking supervisory authority, a joint banking crisis fund and a common deposit protection fund. “We should be able to build a system where banks cannot shake up entire countries. One solution, in addition to monitoring, could be a European bank crisis fund,” Katainen said. The fund’s resources would be collected from the banks, he said. Katainen said the central problem of the euro crisis was the connection between banks and states, and stressed the link needed to be broken.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
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
RSS