ECONOMY
India sells mining stake
India’s government raised over US$4 billion on Friday by selling 10 percent of its stake in mining giant Coal India Ltd as it looks to raise funds through asset sales to keep its fiscal deficit in check, an official said. Investors bid for 675.24 million Coal India shares against more than 631 million shares on offer that were priced at a minimum of 358 rupees each, preliminary data from the Bombay Stock Exchange showed. The government aims to raise nearly US$10 billion from disinvestment during the current financial year to meet its fiscal deficit of 4.1 percent.
CENTRAL BANKS
SNB to pay out dividends
Switzerland’s central bank said on Friday it will pay out 2 billion Swiss francs (US$2.17 billion) to shareholders for last year, but did not know yet whether it will pay out profits for this year after abandoning a cap on the franc against the euro. The dividend is double what the Swiss National Bank (SNB) had earlier this month told shareholders, which include the federal government and cantons, they could expect as a payout.
ELECTRONICS
Panasonic closes TV factory
Panasonic Corp has closed its last remaining TV manufacturing factory in China and is to sell its plant in Mexico as part of a restructuring plan aimed at stemming losses against a sharp decline in TV prices, a newspaper said yesterday. The move will see Panasonic cutting back overseas production by 700,000 units a year, representing about 10 percent of worldwide output, the Nikkei newspaper said.
AUTOMAKERS
BMW fixes security flaw
German automaker BMW AG says it has fixed a security flaw that made 2.2 million of its vehicles vulnerable to break-ins. The company says the problem affected BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce models equipped with its ConnectedDrive technology, which allows drivers to access certain car functions with a smartphone. German automobile club ADAC said hackers could have used a fake cellphone base station to intercept network traffic from the car and lower the windows or open the doors. There are no reports such a break-in ever took place.
LOGISTICS
Executive pleads guilty
An executive of Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to fix prices for transporting cars and will serve a US prison sentence of 18 months, as well as pay a US$20,000 criminal fine, officials said. Hiroshige Tanioka, who was general manager in K-Line’s car carrier division, admitted he had conspired with others in the industry to rig bids and fix prices for shipping vehicles on roll-on, roll-off vessels, the US Department of Justice said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Panther makes Aspiro bid
A business controlled by rapper Jay-Z has made a US$56 million offer to buy the Scandinavian music streaming company Aspiro. Project Panther Bidco Ltd has offered 1.05 Swedish kroner (US$0.13) in cash per share of Aspiro AB. Aspiro’s board has recommended that shareholders accept the offer. The deal is subject to Panther buying more than 90 percent of the shares and getting regulatory approvals.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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