STOCKS
Inside traders sentenced
A former Qualcomm Inc executive was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison and fined US$500,000 for an insider trading scheme that saw him profit from the wireless technology company’s confidential information and then cover up his crimes. Former Qualcomm global business operations president Jing Wang (汪靜), 52, pleaded guilty in July to charges of insider trading, money laundering and obstruction of justice in the case that ended in convictions for several Qualcomm employees. Wang made three trades based on insider information.
MACROECONOMICS
Germany to raise spending
The German government plans to increase spending by 3.4 percent next year while borrowing no new money for the third year running — helped by a strong economy that has boosted its tax income. The budget plan released on Friday envisions 312 billion euros (US$348.44 billion) in spending, up from 301.6 billion euros this year. The budget is expected to increase over the following three years, reaching 333.1 billion euros in 2019, while new borrowing remains at zero. The government plans to put more money into transport infrastructure over the coming years and offering limited tax relief.
EUROZONE
EU fails Romania progress
Romania failed to make sufficient progress in implementing promised economic reforms in exchange for rescue funds, the European Commission said in a statement on Friday after a meeting in Bucharest. Romania only managed to claw out of a deep recession after the EU and the IMF agreed to a bailout program of 20 billion euros (US$22.34 billion) in 2009. In 2013, it concluded a new deal of two years that opened a credit line of 4 billion euros that it could tap on in case of a serious crisis. Romanian Minister of Finance Eugen Teodorovici said after the meeting with EU auditors that a decision concerning whether to carry on with the bailout would be made at the next meeting of EU ministers of finance on July 14.
TRADE
Ukraine broke rules: WTO
Emergency car import duties imposed by Ukraine in 2012 to safeguard its own auto industry violate global trade rules, the WTO said on Friday, urging Kiev to lift them. A WTO panel of experts found in favor of Japan, which brought the complaint against Ukraine in late 2013, ruling that “Ukraine acted inconsistently” with a range of international trade rules, including the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade agreement. Both Ukraine and Japan can appeal the ruling if they do so within 60 days.
FERTILIZER
Bid poses antitrust issues
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc’s bid for rival fertilizer producer K+S AG could face tough regulatory hurdles as more than half of global capacity would end up in the hands of four companies, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The proposed US$8.6 billion takeover of K+S would give about 8 percent of global capacity to Potash, which already controls about 20 percent of the market, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.The possibility of further consolidation in the industry would increase the likelihood of antitrust challenges, Bloomberg Intelligence said.
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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