BREWERIES
Kirin to sell headquarters
Japanese beverage giant Kirin Holdings Co has decided to sell its Tokyo headquarters in order to reduce debts as it aggressively buys foreign firms in an expansion bid, a report said yesterday. Kirin Holdings and its main subsidiary Kirin Brewery Co will sell their headquarters buildings in Tokyo to raise an estimated ￥15 billion to ￥30 billion (US$170 million to US$340 million), the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The group will rent a different building in Tokyo as its global headquarters, the paper said. The company will use the money to reduce debts accumulated after a series of major overseas acquisitions, according to the report. Many Japanese beverage firms have sought to expand overseas while the domestic market suffers slow consumption, a shrinking population and younger people shunning alcohol.
AUTOMAKERS
Toyota halts factory build
Japan’s Toyota Motor Co has decided to halt the construction of new factories for the next three years in a shift from its previous policy of building new plants almost annually, reports said yesterday. The company, which hopes to regain top spot in the global auto market, will concentrate its capital investment on existing factories, the Nikkei Shimbun business daily said. The new policy will shelve through the end of the 2015 fiscal year all plans for building new factories other than those already announced, the paper said. The company will officially announce the decision in a new management plan to be released in coming months, Jiji Press said, adding that Toyota wants to increase efficiency and cut costs.
IRAN
Agricultural exports grow
Agricultural exports grew last year, with pistachio and saffron sales almost doubling, despite Western sanctions on trade with the country, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Deputy Agriculture Minister Jahangir Pourhemmat as saying on Saturday. Between March 21 and Dec. 20, pistachio exports doubled to US$587 million, making the nuts the nation’s biggest agricultural export by value. Exports of saffron rose 87 percent to US$213 million, Fars said. “Export of farming products has increased 15 percent compared to the previous year, while the agricultural exports are still on the increase on a daily basis,” Far quoted the minister as saying. “Over 95 percent of Iran’s needed products are produced inside the country which is highly important for the country’s political independence.”
SHIPPING
Airport aiming to attract UPS
Belgium’s Liege airport, one of Europe’s busiest freight hubs, hopes to entice US parcel delivery firm FedEx Corp away from Paris airports should Dutch firm TNT Express depart for Germany. The head of the Liege airport board, Jose Happart, told daily newspaper La Libre on Saturday that the airport was eyeing a deal with FedEx should the Dutch company go as the result of a looming tie-up with US delivery giant United Parcel Service (UPS). UPS launched a 5.16 billion euro (US$6.71 billion) takeover bid for TNT Express last year. If approved by EU anti-trust authorities, UPS could well decide to move the Dutch firm’s Liege operations — involving about 2,000 jobs — to its own UPS hub in Cologne, in order to streamline services and management. The European Commission competition authorities said last year they were worried that the proposed merger would lead to a highly concentrated market for domestic and international services.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
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