ENERGY
Shell names new CEO
Royal Dutch Shell PLC yesterday appointed its downstream director Ben van Beurden to replace Peter Voser as CEO when Voser retires next year. Van Beurden’s promotion marks a return to a Dutchman leading the Netherlands-British multinational after the tenure of Voser, who is Swiss. Van Beurden has worked for Shell’s upstream and downstream businesses in Europe, Africa, Asia and the US. He will take over from Voser on Jan. 1. Voser will retire at the end of March after 29 years with the company.
CONGLOMERATES
LVMH acquires Loro Piana
French luxury conglomerate LVMH will assume control of Italian exclusive ready-to-wear fashion group Loro Piana by buying an 80 percent stake for about 2 billion euros (US$2.5 billion), the company said in a statement on Monday. LVMH said that the Loro Piana family would keep the remaining 20 percent share, and that the Italian company’s current directors, Sergio and Pier Luigi Loro Piana, would keep their posts. It said the change in ownership would have a positive earnings effect as of the first year. Loro Piana’s turnover for this year is expected to reach about 700 million euros, while its pre-tax profit is forecast to come in at about 150 million euros.
INTERNET
Hulu gets more bids: report
The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that several bidders have stepped up to vie for Hulu, an online video Web site that Internet pioneer Yahoo was said to be eyeing as an acquisition. The Journal cited unnamed sources as saying that Hulu had several suitors, including satellite television company DirecTV and a partnership led by US telecom titan AT&T. A Friday deadline had been set for submitting final bids for Hulu, which was launched in 2007 in a partnership between Comcast, 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Co.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla to join NASDAQ
Tesla Motors Inc, the world’s best-performing automotive stock this year, will join the NASDAQ-100 Index next week, filling the spot vacated by Oracle Corp, which is moving to the New York Stock Exchange. The electric-car maker will be added to the gauge, which tracks the biggest firms on the NASDAQ, before the start of trading on Monday, NASDAQ OMX Group Inc said in a statement on Monday. Shares of Tesla have more than tripled this year in New York as the popularity of its new Model S sedan helped the company turn profitable for the first time.
FOOD
Abbott to cut formula prices
Abbott Laboratories will cut the prices of its main infant formula products in China by as much as 12 percent, the fourth foreign company to do so in a week after the government began a probe into possible price-fixing. Abbott will reduce the prices of products such as Similac and Pediasure by 4 percent to 12 percent in China, Pamela Harrison, a spokeswoman for the company, said by telephone yesterday. The Abbott Park, Illinois-based company joins Nestle SA, Danone and Dutch producer Royal FrieslandCampina NV in lowering prices after the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planning agency, started a probe into their pricing of milk powder. The investigation includes Mead Johnson Nutrition Co and domestic firm Biostime International Holdings (合生元國際控股).
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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