BANKING
Swiss to track EU citizens
Switzerland has signed a preliminary agreement with the EU that would make it much harder for the 28-nation bloc’s citizens to evade taxes by hiding money in Swiss vaults. The deal initialed in Brussels on Thursday envisages that both sides would start collecting bank account data on each other’s citizens from 2017 and begin exchanging that information a year later. The Swiss government said in a statement that the agreement “will make an important contribution to the prevention of tax evasion.”
MACROECONOMICS
Russia says inflation at peak
Inflation in Russia has hit a zenith of about 17 percent, Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev said on Thursday, as the economic crisis roiling the country takes its toll. “The peak in inflation has not passed but we have reached the highest point and will probably stay at this level for some time,” Ulyukayev was reported as saying by Russian news agencies. “I think that for quite a long time, a month and a half or two months it will be at around 17 percent.”
MACROECONOMICS
China to grow 7%: OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) yesterday forecast the Chinese economy would grow 7 percent this year. China’s economy has embarked on what its leaders have taken to calling the “new normal,” meaning that the growth trajectory is slowing, with more sustainable expansion based on a growing consumer class, as in other major countries. The organization predicts growth of 6.9 percent in China next year.
BANKING
Banco de Sabadell buys TSB
TSB Banking Group PLC, a division of Britain’s bailed-out lender Lloyds Banking Group, has accepted a ￡1.7 billion (US$2.51 billion) takeover from Spain’s Banco de Sabadell SA, the two banks said yesterday. The two lenders have agreed terms on the bid which was pitched at ￡0.34 per share they said in a statement. Lloyds, which is 23 percent state-owned after a bailout at the height of the global financial crisis, is to sell its remaining 50 percent stake in TSB, which it floated on the London stock market nine months ago.
GAMING
PlayStation on sale in China
Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp yesterday launched its PlayStation gaming console in China, where authorities impose strict controls on content, but some popular titles including Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty were not available. The launch of Sony’s PlayStation 4 consoles, originally planned for January, makes it the second foreign company in the Chinese gaming market after Microsoft Corp, which launched its Xbox One in September last year.
SPORTING GOODS
Nike profit beats estimates
Nike Inc, the world’s largest sporting-goods maker, posted third-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates, helped by demand in North America. Net income in the quarter ended Feb. 28 rose 16 percent to US$791 million, or US$0.89 per share, from US$682 million, or US$0.75 a year earlier, the Beaverton, Oregon-based company said on Thursday in a statement. The average of 27 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg was US$0.84.
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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