FOOD
Wakodo to recall baby food
A Japanese firm yesterday said it was recalling tens of thousands of pouches of baby food after an insect was discovered in one package, the latest food scare to rock consumers. Asahi Holdings Inc said its subsidiary would be calling back an estimated 120,000 bags of the meat-and-potatoes mix after one was found to contain a cricket. Baby brand Wakodo received the complaint last month from a customer who bought the pack in Tochigi, northeast of Tokyo, and reported that it included a 7.4mm insect, the two companies said.
INFLATION
EU consumer prices drop
Consumer prices in the eurozone fell last month for the first time in more than five years, raising concerns of a protracted drop that could hurt growth. Lower energy costs pushed consumer prices down 0.2 percent last month from the year before, following the 0.3 percent annual rise in November, according to a report on Wednesday by the Eurostat statistics agency. The huge impact of weaker oil prices is evident in the fact that the core inflation rate, which excludes volatile items such as food, tobacco and energy, rose to 0.8 percent from 0.7 percent.
FRANCHISES
Dunkin’ to expand in China
Dunkin’ Donuts confirmed on Wednesday that it struck a deal to open more than 1,400 locations in China over the next 20 years. The chain said in an e-mail that there are currently 16 Dunkin’ Donuts locations in the country. Parent company Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc said it entered into a master franchise agreement with Golden Cup Pte. The group is a joint venture between Jollibee Worldwide Pte Ltd, based in the Philippines, and Jasmine Asset Holding Ltd, a unit of RRJ Capital Master Fund II LP, according to Dunkin’. In the US, Dunkin’ Donuts had about 8,000 locations at the end of last quarter.
PHARMACEUTICALS
FDA panel backs drug copy
US federal health experts have unanimously endorsed a Novartis drug that is expected to become the first lower-cost copy of a biotech drug to reach the US market. A panel of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) experts said the company’s version of Neupogen is highly similar to Amgen’s original blockbuster biotech drug, which is used to boost blood cells that help cancer patients fight infections. The non-binding recommendation could pave the way for a new market of quasi-generic biotech medicines, capable of generating billions in cost savings for insurers, doctors and patients. The FDA is slated to make its final decision on the drug in the coming months.
RETAILERS
Tesco to begin cutting costs
Britain’s biggest grocer Tesco PLC plans to sell assets and cut hundreds of millions of pounds of costs to fund lower prices in-store, after the company’s like-for-like sales at Christmas finished down 0.5 percent, compared with a 4.4 percent fall in the previous three months. With the company’s pension deficit and debt levels growing, Tesco said it would reduce its capital expenditure for next year to ￡1 billion (US$1.5 billion), from no more than ￡2.1 billion this year, and cut costs by ￡250 million a year. It will also explore the sale of its Dunnhumby data business, not pay a final dividend and consult on a plan to close its defined benefit pension scheme.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS