ENTERTAINMENT
Amazon venturing into film
Amazon.com Inc is getting into the movie business, building on some early successes in TV productions, the latest sign of the Internet retailer’s eagerness to build itself into a major Hollywood player. Amazon said on Monday it was aiming to produce close to 12 movies a year for theatrical release, which would then be available on its Prime video service within two months, a huge drop from the roughly one-year wait it normally faces to stream Hollywood releases. Amazon expects to focus on “indie” movies with budgets of between US$5 million and US$25 million, spokeswoman Sally Fouts said. While that is modest compared with Hollywood blockbusters, it will add further to spending at Amazon, potentially unnerving investors concerned about the company’s lack of profitability and skimpy disclosure of its spending.
MACROECONOMICS
Malaysia cuts GDP growth
Malaysia yesterday cut its economic growth forecast for this year and announced a slew of austerity measures after tumbling oil prices forced the government to slash spending. Prime Minister Najib Razak said the government’s budget for this year, announced in October, was based on oil prices averaging US$100 a barrel, but this projection was no longer realistic as global crude prices have dropped by more than 50 percent. State oil company Petronas contributes about a third of Malaysian government revenue. He said the government lowered its oil price forecast to US$55 a barrel, which would lead to a revenue shortfall of 8.3 billion ringgit (US$2.3 billion) despite savings from the removal of fuel subsidies last year. Najib said development spending would still be maintained at 48.5 billion ringgit, but the government would slash its operating expenditure by 5.5 billion ringgit. The economy is forecast to grow between 4.5 and 5.5 percent this year, while the budget deficit is expected to equal 3.2 percent of GDP.
TRADE
Itochu, CP invest in Citic
Japanese trading house Itochu yesterday said it was teaming up with Thai agricultural giant Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) to invest US$10.4 billion in Chinese conglomerate Citic Group (中信集團). The deal would see the pair acquire a 10 percent stake in Citic for HK$34.4 billion (US$4.4 billion) and invest another HK$45.9 billion in convertible preferred shares, which could ultimately double the size of their stake in the Chinese firm. By investing in politically connected Citic, the two could gain easier access to highly regulated Chinese business sectors, including resource development, logistics and real estate.
CONSUMER GOODS
Unilever earnings up 5%
Consumer goods giant Unilever, maker of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, yesterday said that net profit for last year rose 5 percent from the year earlier to 5.5 billion euros (US$6.4 billion) despite tough market conditions in its markets. Sales slid 2.7 percent to 48.4 billion euros, but underlying sales, which strip out currency fluctuations and new businesses, rose 2.9 percent for the year, it said. “Despite a challenging year for our industry with significant economic headwinds and weak markets we have delivered another year of competitive underlying sales growth and margin expansion,” CEO Paul Polman said. The company does not expect a significant pickup in its markets for this year and predicts a similar performance to last year, Polman said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
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