TELECOMS
Sprint cuts 452 jobs
Sprint Corp has cut 452 jobs from its Overland Park headquarters as part of a previously announced cost-cutting effort, the nation’s third-biggest cellphone carrier disclosed in a filing with the Kansas Department of Commerce on Friday. The report covers the first installment of layoffs planned throughout this month. It does not cover any job losses outside the headquarters campus, although they are believed to be happening too, the Kansas City Star reported. The company said earlier this month in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was cutting an unspecified number of jobs to better compete with AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications. Sprint said it would book a US$160 million charge in its fiscal second quarter to cover the layoffs. Friday’s disclosure said the local cuts were permanent and more would come.
RETAIL
Tesco to revise earnings
The world’s third-largest retailer, Tesco, is scheduled to state next week that it overestimated earnings by less than the ￡250 million (US$322 million) which it previously announced, Sky news reported on Saturday, citing an unnamed banking source. Sky said on its Web site that when the firm reports its delayed first-half results on Thursday, the gap would fall “somewhere close to the middle” between ￡200 million and ￡250 million. The 95-year-old supermarket chain is suffering its worst ever crisis after issuing three profit warnings in 64 days this year. It said last month that an accounting mistake had overvalued first-half profits by ￡250 million. The firm is expected to update the market on Thursday of the progress of its own investigation into the error being conducted by auditors Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd and law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
GAS
Ukraine, Russia agree price
Ukrainian and Russian leaders have reached a preliminary agreement on a price for supplies this winter, but Kiev might need international help to pay, Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko said on Saturday. Poroshenko met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Milan, Italy, on Friday to discuss the conflict in the east, where pro-Russian separatists are fighting Kiev government forces. Russia cut off supplies in mid-June following more than two years of dispute on the price. Russia said Ukraine had to pay off large debts before it would resume supply. “Until March 31, we will fix the price at US$385,” Poroshenko said in an interview with Ukrainian TV channels. An agreement signed in 2009 by former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko called on Ukraine to pay Russia US$485 per 1,000m3. Kiev is contesting the contract in a Stockholm arbitration court.
CHINA
Growth slowest since 2009
Economic growth in the third quarter fell to its slowest since the depths of the global financial crisis more than five years ago, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) survey said. The nation’s GDP is predicted to have risen 7.2 percent year-on-year in the July-to-September period, a poll of 17 economists showed. The median forecast for the world’s second-largest economy, a key driver of global growth, would be the worst since the first quarter of 2009, when growth stagnated at 6.6 percent. The government plans to release the official GDP figure tomorrow. The analysts polled expect the economy to grow 7.3 percent this year, unchanged from the previous forecast three months ago, but slower than actual growth of 7.7 percent last year.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS