SOUTH KOREA
Kaesong firms to get loans
The government will provide more than US$270 million in emergency loans to help companies affected by the shutdown of a jointly-run factory park in North Korea. The finance ministry said yesterday the 300 billion won (US$273 million) in relief funds would help cover debts and operating costs of about 120 South Korean companies that were forced early last month to halt production at factories in the Kaesong industrial complex amid high tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
AUTOMAKERS
BMW hit by tough markets
BMW AG said yesterday tough auto markets worldwide and investment in new technology dented its first-quarter earnings. Net profit fell 3 percent to 1.312 billion euros (US$1.726 billion). Revenues fell 4.1 percent to 17.55 billion euros. While the company’s drop in profit for the quarter was smaller than at German competitors Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG, BMW gave a cautious outlook, staying its forecast for earnings was “on a similar scale” to last year’s. “We do not expect to receive a great deal of impetus from most European markets,” chief executive Norbert Reithofer said.
MEDIA
DreamWorks in Web deal
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc is buying AwesomenessTV, a YouTube teen network, for about US$33 million in cash as it looks to tap into the popularity of online content. DreamWorks said on Wednesday that AwesomenessTV founder and chief executive Brian Robbins would continue to direct growth at the company, while also developing a DreamWorks branded digital family channel. The deal includes the possibility of additional cash payments of up to US$117 million if certain earnings targets are reached next year and in 2015.
FINANCE
Visa raises its forecast
Visa Inc said on Wednesday that its net income slipped nearly 2 percent in the first three months of this year from the year before, when the company benefited from an adjustment to its income tax provision. Even so, the company raised its earnings growth forecast for this fiscal year from the high teens to about 20 percent, citing a more certain revenue outlook and earlier-than-planned share buybacks. For the fiscal second quarter, Visa reported net income of US$1.27 billion, or earnings per share of US$1.92. Revenue in the latest quarter rose nearly 15 percent to US$2.96 billion from US$2.58 billion the previous year.
ENGINEERING
Siemens trims targets
German giant Siemens yesterday trimmed its full-year targets as it posted mixed second quarter numbers. Full-year revenues were projected to decline, but orders would rise “moderately,” Siemens said. Siemens, which runs its business year from October to September, said that orders rose by 20 percent to 21.451 billion euros in the period from January to March, but revenues were down 7 percent at 18.011 billion euros. Net profit grew by 10 percent to 1.03 billion euros, falling short of analysts’ expectations.
OIL
Shell CEO to retire next year
Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday that its chief executive since 2009, Peter Voser, would retire next year as it reported first-quarter results that beat expectations. Adjusted net profit on a current cost of supply basis rose to US$7.5 billion in the quarter from US$7.3 billion the previous year, the company said.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
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