AUTOMAKERS
US car sales growth slows
Automakers on Friday reported another month of higher US sales last month, but there were signs the multiyear boom might be coming to a close. The auto industry, which has enjoyed seven consecutive years of US sales growth, sold slightly less than 1.6 million vehicles last month, according to Autodata. That was an increase of 3.1 percent from the year-ago period, but about 60,000 below the level expected by analysts at Edmunds.com.
INTERNET
GIC to invest in Ancestry
GIC Pte, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and technology investor Silver Lake Management LLC are to buy into Ancestry.com LLC, the US genealogy company said. The investment values Provo, Utah-based Ancestry at about US$2.6 billion, it said on Friday. Ancestry, which provides data on family histories and runs a DNA-testing service, has more than 2.2 million paying subscribers, the company said. Genealogy is the most popular hobby in the US after gardening, USA Today reported in 2014.
BANKING
Santander to close branches
Banco Santander SA intends to close about 450 branches in Spain as the lender steers customers into digital banking to save on costs and bolster profitability, according to an internal memo dated on Thursday. That represents about 13 percent of Santander’s 3,467 branches in Spain. Most of the affected branches employ fewer than four people, the bank said. The Comisiones Obreras union said Santander has informed it of plans to close 425 branches this year.
AVIATION
Bombardier receives order
Canadian aviation giant Bombardier Inc on Friday announced it has received an order for 20 of its Challenger 350 business jets valued at about US$534 million. The small twin-engine jet can carry up to nine passengers and fly as far as 6,000km on a single tank of fuel. The Montreal-based company did not disclose the buyer. The first C Series jetliner is now expected to be delivered and go into service in June.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
California sues over loans
California sued Morgan Stanley over claims it misrepresented “complex investments” sold to the state’s employee pension funds, including the type of subprime mortgage-backed securities that led to the global financial crisis. California Attorney General Kamala Harris accused Morgan Stanley of bundling high-risk loans from subprime lenders — some directly funded by Morgan Stanley — and selling them to investors without disclosing its own concerns about the poor quality of the debt, according to the complaint filed on Friday in San Francisco state court.
PETROLEUM
Mexico reserves drop 21%
Mexico’s government oil commission said the country’s proven reserves of oil and gas dropped by a startling 21 percent last year. The commission on Thursday said that combined oil and gas reserves amounted to 10.24 billion barrels of crude equivalent at the end of last year, compared with 13 billion barrels at the end of 2014. A drop in revenue and temporary cash flow problems have led state-run Petroleos Mexicanos to cut back on exploration.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
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