AUTOMAKERS
Mitsubishi forecasts loss
Mitsubishi Motors Corp yesterday forecast its first loss in eight years after setting aside compensation costs related to manipulating fuel-efficiency ratings and falsifying test data. The net loss in the year ending March 31 will probably be ￥145 billion (US$1.4 billion), the company said. Mitsubishi Motors sees a ￥205 billion impact from the fuel economy scandal this fiscal year. Chairman Osamu Masuko aims to resume minicar production early next month and has said he is prepared to cut prices on models that are not as efficient as previously advertised.
TOYMAKERS
Hornby to cut product lines
British toymaker Hornby PLC said it would decrease its product lines by 40 percent and exit a majority of its concession agreements in the UK in a turnaround plan aimed at boosting its gross margins. Hornby, famous for its model railways, appointed finance director Steve Cooke as its CEO in April, two months after its previous head, Richard Ames, left in the wake of its third profit warning. The new business plan will focus on its core hobby customers, Cooke said in a statement, adding that revenue would fall by about one-quarter. The company reported an underlying pretax loss of ￡5.7 million (US$8.35 million) for the year ended March 31.
FASHION RETAIL
Hennes & Mauritz profit falls
Hennes & Mauritz AB says second-quarter net profit fell 17 percent as the Swedish fashion retailer continued to be hit by a strong US dollar causing high costs. The group’s sales increased 2 percent in the quarter to 54.3 billion kronor (US$6.6 billion), while profit dropped to 5.3 billion kronor from 6.4 billion a year earlier, with increased markdowns and investments. CEO Karl-Johan Persson described the first half of the year as “challenging,” but yesterday said he expects future growth for the Stockholm-based company that has 4,000 stores in 62 markets, with plans to open more than 400 more this year.
DELIVERIES
FedEX loses US$70m
FedEx Corp lost US$70 million in the latest quarter because of large pension and acquisition items, and the delivery giant gave a cautious outlook for the next 12 months. The company’s results still beat Wall Street expectations, as FedEx and other delivery companies continue to benefit as consumers do more shopping online. FedEx on Tuesday said that it expects earnings excluding one-time items in the new fiscal year to be between US$11.75 and US$12.25 per share. Last quarter, the loss amounted to US$0.26 per share and compared with a year-earlier loss of US$895 million, or US$3.16 per share.
TELECOMS
Softbank’s Arora to resign
Nikesh Arora, the heir apparent at Softbank Group Corp, will step down from the Japanese company in a surprise departure after founder Masayoshi Son made it clear he would not get the top executive role in the near future. The former Google executive had come under fire from some investors over his qualifications for the job. However, Son said those criticisms played no part in the departure. Rather, the 58-year-old founder said that he wants to remain at the helm of the company for a few more years, while Arora aspired to be chief executive officer more quickly. Arora, 48, will remain an adviser to Softbank.
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
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