AUTOMOTIVE
Takata shares plunge 20%
Takata’s shares plunged 20 percent in Tokyo yesterday after a report that the recall-related costs facing the Japanese airbag supplier could be as high as US$24 billion. Citing a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News said the company estimated the “worst-case” scenario would involve the recall of 287.5 million airbag inflators at a cost of as much as ¥2.7 trillion (US$24 billion). Takata and its automaker clients are still hashing out how the costs would be shared, the source said.
AEROSPACE
Boeing to cut 4,000 jobs
Boeing Co plans to cut about 4,000 jobs from its commercial airplane division by mid-year, as part of a broader effort to reduce costs amid fierce competition from Airbus Group SE. The US planemaker does not plan any involuntary layoffs for now; rather, the savings would come from 1,600 workers who elected to leave the company under a voluntary program announced last month, Marc Birtel, a Boeing spokesman, said by e-mail. Another 2,400 positions are either vacant or are to be shed through attrition.
MALAYSIA
1MDB to repay US$1.5bn
The state investment firm at the center of multiple financial probes said it would repay 6 billion ringgit (US$1.5 billion) in coming weeks as asset sales give it room to pare down debt. 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) will not have any more short-term debt and bank loans after the repayments, 1MDB president Arul Kanda said in an interview yesterday at the fund’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. It will have a cash surplus of at least 2.3 billion ringgit after settling the debt, he said.
ISRAEL
Executives salaries capped
The government has introduced one of the world’s toughest curbs on bank executives’ salaries to try to narrow a big gap between bosses’ and workers’ pay. The law, pushed through by Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon, was approved in parliament overnight in a 56-0 vote and is to take effect in six months. Under the new law, which also applies to insurance firms, total compensation will be capped at 2.5 million shekels (US$652,605) a year, or no more than 44 times the salary of the lowest worker at the company. Anything above the ceiling will be subject to higher taxes.
AUTOMAKERS
Tavares salary sparks ire
A decision by PSA Peugeot Citroen SA to double its chairman’s salary to 5 million euros has sparked angry debate in France, with French Minister of Finance Michel Sapin on Tuesday describing the raise as “harmful.” Carlos Tavares, chairman of Europe’s second-biggest carmaker, earned 5.24 million euros (US$5.8 million) last year, up from 2.75 million euros in 2014, company documents showed last week. As criticism rose over the move, Sapin said the government, which has a 13 percent stake in the company, asked its representatives to vote against the salary increase.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Snapchat adds features
Snapchat Inc, operator of a popular social-messaging app, released an update that bolstered its chat function with multimedia features, including voice and video calling and digital stickers. Los Angeles-based Snapchat on Tuesday said Chat 2.0 emulates “face-to-face communication,” while making it easier to switch between video chatting, texting and calling. WhatsApp introduced voice — but not video — calls last year.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
SENSOR BUSINESS: The Taiwanese company said that a public tender offer would begin on May 7 through its wholly owned subsidiary Yageo Electronics Japan Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the world’s top three suppliers of passive components, yesterday said it is to launch a tender offer to fully acquire Japan’s Shibaura Electronics Co for up to ¥65.57 billion (US$429.37 million), with an aim to expand its sensor business. The tender offer would be a crucial step for the company to expand its sensor business, Yageo said. Shibaura Electronics is the world’s largest supplier of thermistors, with a market share of 13 percent, research conducted in 2022 by the Japanese firm showed. If a deal goes ahead, it would be the second acquisition of a sensor business since