UNITED KINGDOM
Tax paves way for surplus
The UK last month posted a surplus as the government’s tax take was boosted by the first payments under a surcharge on banks introduced last year. Government income exceeded spending by ￡977 million (US$1.28 billion), compared with ￡1.17 billion a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday. Receipts rose 3.4 percent, while spending was up 1.3 percent. Income was boosted by an 8.4 percent jump in corporation tax to ￡7.5 billion. Half of the increase was due to the Bank Corporation Tax surcharge of 8 percent.
TOURISM
Mauritius raises forecast
Mauritius yesterday said that tourism revenue this year will be 1.8 percent higher than it had previously forecast, after a surge in visitors during the first half. Earnings from the sector are now expected to reach 56 billion Mauritian rupees (US$1.6 billion) this year, up from an earlier forecast of 55 billion rupees in May, according to Statistics Mauritius. Last year, tourism earnings totaled 50.2 billion rupees. The statistics agency also raised its forecast for this year’s arrivals from 1.24 million tourists to 1.25 million. Visitors numbered 1,151,723 last year. In the first half of this year, Mauritius attracted 586,464 tourists, up 9.9 percent from a year earlier.
AIRLINES
Thai eyes new planes
Thai Airways International PCL plans to add routes and buy new, more fuel-efficient aircraft to replace aging jets, president Charamporn Jotikasthira said in an interview in Bangkok on Wednesday. The airline, which last ordered planes in 2011, is drawing up a 10-year plan through 2027 that will include the aircraft purchases to help boost passenger growth, he said. Thai Airways still has 14 new aircraft due to be delivered through 2018 and the carrier has 94 planes in operation. Cost cuts and a decline in oil prices helped Thai Airways return to profit in the first half and have fueled a 191 percent surge in the company’s shares this year. The stock slumped 37 percent last year.
MOTORCYCLES
Harley settles suit with US
US motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson on Thursday entered a US$15 million settlement with US authorities, who accused the company of making and selling illegal devices that increased air pollution from its bikes. The company agreed to buy back and cease selling so-called “super tuners,” which improved performance, but increased hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions. The company has produced and sold about 340,000 of the devices, which are prohibited according to the US Clean Air Act, the US Department of Justice said. Last year, the company sold about 265,000 motorcycles worldwide and 168,000 in the US.
BANKING
Fired official refuses reward
A former Deutsche Bank AG risk officer said he was refusing an US$8.25 million reward from the Securities and Exchange Commission for blowing the whistle on the lender overvaluing a derivatives portfolio, because of his concern that the commission did not go after senior executives. The US$55 million fine that Deutsche Bank paid in a settlement announced by the commission in May last year had penalized shareholders, while top executives retired with their multimillion dollar bonuses intact, Eric Ben-Artzi wrote in a Financial Times column published yesterday. Ben-Artzi sued Deutsche Bank for wrongful dismissal in 2012.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
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