AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai profit falls
Hyundai Motor Co, ranked fifth in global sales with affiliate Kia Motors, posted a surprise quarterly profit drop as a stronger South Korean won dented its overseas earnings, sending its shares falling the most in three weeks. The won rose almost 8 percent against the US dollar last year, its biggest gain since 2009, cutting the value of Hyundai’s overseas revenue in local currency terms and hurting the carmaker’s price competitiveness abroad. To make matters worse, the Japanese yen eased by 11 percent, handing Hyundai’s competitive edge back to its Japanese rivals. The profit decline came even as Hyundai Motor sold a record 1.23 million vehicles in the fourth quarter.
TECHNOLOGY
LG hit by slow demand
LG Display Co, the world’s second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, reported quarterly profit which trailed analyst forecasts because of slowing demand for Apple Inc’s iPads and a stronger won. Net income was 319.7 billion won (US$299 million) in the three months ended last month, compared with the 363.4 billion won average of 22 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Fourth-quarter sales rose 15 percent to 8.7 trillion won, according to a statement yesterday. The panelmaker reported a 6 billion won loss a year earlier. The LG Electronics Inc affiliate suffered as consumers shunned Apple’s original iPads in favor of a new mini version, which uses a smaller and less lucrative screen. A stronger won also cut the repatriated values sales from overseas as Japanese rivals benefited from a weaker yen. Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative costs, almost doubled to 587 billion won, compared with a loss a year earlier, LG Display said.
FINANCE
Commerzbank to axe jobs
Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest bank, yesterday said it is looking to axe between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs — or about 10 percent of its workforce — by 2016. “As part of our strategic agenda announced in November, Commerzbank is planning to invest more than 2 billion euros [US$2.7 billion] in core operations, as well as cost savings,” a bank spokeswoman told reporters. “Overall, the bank is assuming that 4,000 to 6,000 jobs will be cut group-wide by 2016. The exact number will be determined in negotiations with employee representatives that are likely to start in February,” she said. On Sept. 30 last year, Commerzbank’s total workforce numbered 56,287. The bank’s retail division — its high-street branch network — is set to bear the brunt of the cuts.
EUROZONE
Business activity rises
Private business activity across the eurozone hit a 10-month high this month, according to a leading growth indicator released yesterday. The Purchasing Managers’ Index published by London-based Markit researchers, a survey of thousands of eurozone companies, logged 48.2 points compared with 47.2 points the previous month. This month marked a third rise running for the index, even though it remains below the boom-and-bust 50-point line indicating economic growth or contraction — a 16th shrinkage in 17 months. Manufacturing production fell for the 11th month in a row, with both the manufacturing and services sectors registering their smallest retreat in 10 months. The key eurozone economy of Germany powered back to growth, but No. 2 economy France is still in contraction.
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
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
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
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