SOUTH KOREA
Lotte Group boss sought
Lotte Group yesterday said that prosecutors have requested an arrest warrant for its chairman, Shin Dong-bin, the latest twist in a sweeping criminal probe into the nation’s fifth-largest conglomerate. A prosecution source with direct knowledge of the matter said the warrant has been sought as part of an investigation into suspected embezzlement and breach of trust. Lotte Group did not say why the arrest warrant was requested, and did not say where Shin is.
AVIATION
MRJ aircraft flies to US
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp said a test aircraft took off yesterday on its third attempt to fly to the US after aborting flights twice last month due to problems with air-conditioning sensors. The Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) left Nagoya Airport at 1:28pm, said Kenichi Takemori, a Nagoya-based spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, the parent of Mitsubishi Aircraft. He declined to say what route the plane would take. Success with the latest attempt may provide a boost to the program that is crucial for Japan’s efforts to break the regional-jet duopoly of Brazil’s Embraer SA and Canada’s Bombardier Inc.
BANKING
Deutsche Bank shares fall
Deutsche Bank AG shares yesterday dropped to a record low amid concerns that mounting legal bills, including a looming fine over its pre-crisis mortgage bond business, may force it to raise capital. The shares dropped 6.3 percent to 10.70 euros at 10:14am in Frankfurt. A potential US$14 billion bill to settle a US probe into residential mortgage-backed securities is more than twice the amount that the bank has set aside for litigation. The lender also faces inquiries into legal issues, including currency manipulation, precious metals trading and billions of dollars in transfers out of Russia, complicating CEO John Cryan’s efforts to bolster profitability and capital ratios. A German government spokesman said there was no reason to speculate about aid to the bank.
PRECIOUS METALS
Gold retreats in Singapore
Gold retreated after its biggest weekly advance in two months, as the US dollar erased losses, dimming the metal’s appeal as an alternative investment. Bullion for immediate delivery fell 0.2 percent to US$1,334.70 an ounce by 2:42pm in Singapore after a 2.1 percent gain last week, the most since the period to July 29, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the greenback against 10 major peers, pared an intraday decline of 0.2 percent to trade little changed.
BANKING
France seeks UBS data
French tax authorities have asked Switzerland to hand over client information for about 45,000 bank accounts as part of a probe into alleged tax fraud, Le Parisien daily said yesterday. Banking giant UBS in July said that the Swiss authorities had asked it to provide client information following a French request for international administrative assistance in May. The demand concerns former and current clients living in France, based on data from 2006 to 2008. Le Parisien yesterday published extracts from a letter dated May 11 from French authorities. The assets of those listed totaled more than 11 billion Swiss francs (US$11 billion), the report said. France opened a probe into UBS after former employees blew the whistle over its alleged system of setting up dual accounts to hide the movement of capital into Switzerland. UBS denies the accusations.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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