ECONOMY
Greece to issue bonds
Greece, at risk of crashing out of the eurozone just two years ago, was to issue its first sovereign bond in almost four years yesterday, seeking to send a strong political and economic signal that it is on the way out of its debt crisis. International banks have been mandated to sell a benchmark five-year, euro-denominated bond under British law, with the sale to be completed “in the immediate future,” the country’s finance ministry said in a statement. According to sources speaking to Reuters and Thomson Reuters news and information service IFR, pricing was set for yesterday. Greece initially priced the sale at a yield of between 5 and 5.25 percent and has already attracted more than 11 billion euros (US$15.21 billion) of investor interest.
CRIME
HP to settle over bribes
HP to Hewlett-Packard (HP) is to pay the US government US$108 million to settle charges that former employees paid bribes to officials in Russia, Mexico and Poland. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said an HP division in Russia paid US$2 million to make sure the company retained a contract with the federal prosecutors’ office there. A Mexican subsidiary paid US$1 million to secure a software sale to the country’s state-owned oil company, while US$600,000 in gifts and bribes were paid to a Polish government official to win contracts with the national police agency. The SEC says each scheme lasted for years, and that HP’s internal controls were not strong enough to stop the illegal payments.
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook moving chats
Facebook on Wednesday began pushing smartphone chats between friends to a stand-alone Messenger application. The move to make members of the world’s leading online social network resort to Messenger for text exchanges on the move comes shortly after Facebook outlined a strategy to focus on specialized “apps” for smartphones and tablets. Messenger was touted as a speedier and superior tool for chats. The switch also lets Facebook focus engineering resources on honing one application instead of dividing resources between two.
REAL ESTATE
Beijing property sold
A company controlled by the family of Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), has sold a landmark Beijing property for more than US$900 million, it said, adding to speculation he is cashing out of Chinese property. Pacific Century Premium Developments Ltd (盈科大衍地產) — a firm chaired by Richard Li (李澤楷), the tycoon’s younger son — signed an agreement on Tuesday to sell Pacific Century Place for US$928 million. The deal is nearly 30 percent lower than the asking price reported last year for the well-located Beijing property. The deal is the fourth Chinese property disposal by Li’s family since August, it said, adding that the sales have fetched a total of nearly 18 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion).
BANKING
JPMorgan CEO takes pay cut
JPMorgan Chase & Co chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon’s total compensation fell 37 percent last year to US$11.8 million as the largest US investment bank grappled with billions in legal costs and fines. According to regulatory documents filed on Wednesday, Dimon’s total compensation fell from US$18.7 million in 2012. Last year, JPMorgan was hit legal costs and fines stemming from the housing crisis and its US$6 billion “London Whale” trading loss.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
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