ELECTRONICS
Sony reports Q1 loss
Sony Corp reported an ￥88.4 billion (US$818 million) loss in the first quarter, a smaller flow of red ink than a year earlier, but yesterday it postponed giving its annual outlook until May, citing damage from major earthquakes in southwestern Japan earlier this month. Quarterly sales for the company slipped nearly 6 percent from a year earlier to ￥1.8 trillion. The company racked up a ￥106.8 billion yen in the same period a year earlier. For the fiscal year ended on March 31, Sony posted a ￥147.8 billion profit, a reversal from ￥126 billion in losses a year earlier. It was the first time in three years Sony was able to post a profit. For the quarter ended on March 31, Sony’s operations in mobile communications and devices lagged, while games, movies and imaging operations fared better.
ELECTRONICS
LG earnings decline
LG Electronics Inc yesterday said it earned 191 billion won (US$168 million) in the January-March period, compared with 2 billion won a year earlier. The results were its best since mid-2014. Operating profit jumped 66 percent to 505 billion won even as sales declined 5 percent to 13.4 trillion won. The big jump shows that LG’s efforts to burnish its reputation as a premium home-appliance maker are paying off. However, its mobile business lost money due to marketing expenses to promote the new G5 smartphone.
BIOMEDICINE
Samsung to list shares
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co yesterday announced a plan to list shares of its drug-manufacturing unit on Seoul’s stock market as it eyes the biomedical business as a new engine for growth. Samsung Biologics’ board members agreed to list the firm’s shares on Seoul’s main KOSPI bourse by the end of this year in a step to fund more investment, the firm said in a statement. The firm produces biopharmaceutical drugs as a manufacturing contractor for major companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Roche at plants west of Seoul.
HOTELS
TUI to sell Hotelbeds
German tourism giant TUI said it has agreed to sell off its Hotelbeds unit to two investment funds for 1.2 billion euros (US$1.4 billion), the German group said in a statement late on Wednesday. Hotelbeds describes itself as the No. 1 bedbank worldwide, offering hotel capacity to travel agencies and tour operators in more than 120 countries. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to complete by end of September, TUI said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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