BANKING
Citigroup to sell operation
Citigroup said yesterday that it was selling its century-old Japanese retail banking operations to major lender Sumitomo Mitsui as part of an effort to shrink its consumer business globally.
Financial details were not released, but Japanese news reports estimated the deal to be worth about ￥40 billion (US$333 million). According to the agreement, Sumitomo unit SMBC Trust Bank would acquire Citibank Japan’s operations including 32 retail branches, 740,000 customers, 1,600 employees and deposits worth ￥2.5 trillion. The transaction is expected to be completed late next year. The US firm entered the Japanese market in 1902, one of the first foreign lenders to operate in the country.
EMPLOYMENT
US jobless claims fall
Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the job market is making progress as the year ends. Jobless claims dropped by 9,000 to 280,000 in the week ended on Saturday last week, the fewest since early last month, from 289,000 in the prior period, a US Department of Labor report showed today in Washington. A median forecast of 47 economists surveyed called for 290,000. Economists’ estimates ranged from claims of 275,000 to 300,000. The previous week’s figure was unrevised. The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits climbed by 25,000 to 2.4 million in the week ended Dec. 13. The economy has added 2.65 million workers to payrolls so far this year, the biggest annual gain since 1999. The jobless rate last month held at 5.8 percent, the lowest since 2008.
INDIA
Investment rules to change
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved an executive decree to hike foreign investment in the funds-starved insurance sector, bypassing squabbling lawmakers to push ahead with economic reforms. The ordinance, a rarely used measure, raises the foreign direct investment cap in insurance companies to 49 percent from 26 percent. The move must be approved by both houses of parliament during the next session to take permanent effect. “The ordinance demonstrates the firm determination of the government for reforms,” Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi. Foreign investors have been long eyeing the lucrative sector, which analysts say has huge potential thanks to a fast-expanding middle-class and the fact that only about 4 percent of the 1.25 billion population has insurance coverage, according to industry figures.
DERIVATIVES
MF Global reaches deal
MF Global Holdings Ltd settled a US government lawsuit, agreeing to pay US$1.2 billion in restitution and a US$100 million fine for client losses tied to the company’s 2011 collapse. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued MF Global and company officials, including former chief executive officer Jon Corzine, last year for failing to properly supervise employees as the firm spiraled toward bankruptcy. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan signed an order on Tuesday approving the pact. Customers have already received most of what they are owed, according to the commission, the main regulator of MF Global’s failed brokerage unit, MF Global Inc. The agency claimed MF Global Holdings is responsible for the brokerage’s failure to notify the agency of deficiencies in customer accounts, false statements and improper investments.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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