AUTOMAKERS
Volkswagen global sales fall
Volkswagen AG on Tuesday said that global sales slipped 3.7 percent last month amid turmoil in key markets. The company delivered 792,100 vehicles last month, bringing this year’s total to 5.83 million, 1 percent less than it sold in the same period a year earlier. In China, Volkswagen’s biggest market, sales for the first seven months of the year declined about 5 percent to 1.99 million vehicles. The company’s brands include Audi, Porsche and Skoda.
MARKETING
WPP PLC show strong sales
WPP PLC, the world’s largest advertising company, yesterday said first-half sales increased 6.8 percent as business from existing clients picked up in North America. Sales rose to ￡5.84 billion (US$9.16 billion). Profit, before interest and tax rose, 7.6 percent to ￡669 million, the London-based company said in a statement. The owner of ad agencies, including Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather, said revenue last month rose 5 percent on a like-for-like basis, indicating a stronger third quarter.
TRAVEL
Airbnb to charge Paris tax
The home-sharing company Airbnb has agreed to incorporate a small tourist tax on rental apartments in Paris — following a request by Paris authorities. In a statement on Tuesday, Airbnb said it would collect 0.83 euros (US$0.95) per person per day to be paid by lodgers from Oct. 1. Paris’ City Hall said that it is a move to bring Airbnb more in line with city hotels, who already pay the tax and are bearing the brunt of increased competition.
AIRLINES
Air New Zealand profit rise
New Zealand’s national airline yesterday posted a 24 percent jump in annual profit after benefiting from lower fuel costs and continuing its expansion in Asia and North America. Air New Zealand announced after-tax profits of NZ$327 million (US$212 million) for the year to the end of June. Revenue was up 6 percent to NZ$4.9 billion. The company said domestic passenger numbers were up 3.4 percent and long-haul international numbers up 9.3 percent.
INTERNET
Online gaming merger
Online gambling company Betfair and Irish rival Paddy Power yesterday said they had reached an agreement in principle on a possible merger, marking the latest in a string of possible tie-ups across the sector. The two firms said discussions were ongoing regarding some terms of a merger that would create one of the world’s largest online betting and gaming groups with revenues of more than ￡1.1 billion (US$1.72 billion). Under the terms, Paddy Power shareholders would own 52 percent of the group with Betfair shareholders owning the rest.
ECONOMY
Pakistan’s tax crisis a reality
Despite recent optimism surrounding Pakistan’s economy, the country is facing an “existential crisis” stemming from its woeful tax collection rates and inability to finance itself, a report said yesterday. Pakistan’s economy grew at 4.24 percent during the last fiscal year with per capita income rising a significant 9.25 percent, markers that come as investor confidence in the long-underperfoming South Asian giant have also increased. The country’s tax-to-GDP ratio of 9.4 percent is among the lowest in the world, leading to a public debt of 17 trillion rupees (US$171 billion).
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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