STOCKS
Earnings report boosts Sony
Sony Corp shares yesterday jumped to their highest since May 2015 after a bullish earnings report triggered analyst predictions that the electronics maker could achieve record profit this year. The Tokyo-based company rose 3 percent to ¥3,873 at the close in Tokyo after forecasting operating profit of ¥500 billion (US$4.47 billion) for the fiscal year through March next year, thanks to continued dominance in gaming and strong growth in smartphone-camera chips. While that was mostly in line with the ¥507 billion average estimate, analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc to Jefferies Group said Sony could surpass its previous record profit of ¥525.7 billion in 1998. “We expect Sony to achieve its medium-term plan operating profit target for the first time in 10 years and believe it may surpass its record high,” Goldman analysts Masaru Sugiyama and Yusuke Noguchi wrote in a note to clients.
AIRLINES
ANA bullish on earnings
Japan’s largest airline, ANA Holdings Inc, forecasts higher net income than rival Japan Airlines Co (JAL) this fiscal year, the first time, is expected to outperform its rival since JAL exited bankruptcy six years ago. ANA is increasing profit as it adds more international flights following an expansion at Tokyo Haneda Airport, while JAL was restricted in adding new routes until March this year. JAL was the world’s most profitable publicly traded airline in the fiscal year ended March 2014.
REAL ESTATE
Australia price record set
Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar has bought a Sydney waterfront mansion for an Australian record of A$75 million (US$56.28 million), a report said yesterday, after the owners resisted selling the 1863-built home to developers. The co-founder of Australian software giant Atlassian, which floated in the US in late 2015, snapped up the iconic “Elaine” from John Brehmer Fairfax, whose family formerly owned the Sydney Morning Herald. The estate, which stretches down to a harbor beach in Sydney’s prestigious Point Piper, had been in the Fairfax family since 1891. Fairfax reportedly resisted larger offers from developers to subdivide the land. “We’re thrilled with the purchase and honoured to take over the Elaine estate in its entirety from the Fairfax family,” Farquhar, 37, told Fairfax Media.
CANADA
Mortgage fears spread
The escalation of Home Capital Group Inc’s distress last week has led one of its largest former investors to rethink — if only slightly — the prospects of troubles spreading through the rest of the nation. After the alternative-mortgage lender set up a C$2 billion (US$1.46 billion) credit line to offset a run on deposits, Mawer Investment Management Ltd chairman Jim Hall is recalculating the odds of a contagion widening across one of the world’s strongest financial systems. “The probability has gone from infinitesimal to possible — unlikely, but possible,” said Hall, chief investment officer of the Calgary-based money manager, in an interview on Saturday. “If depositors or bondholders start to lose faith in their banks, well then that becomes systemic.” Mawer, which oversees more than C$40 billion in assets, sold about 2.8 million shares, or a 4.3 percent stake, in Home Capital in the past week, joining another Calgary-based money manager, QV Investors Inc, in exiting its investment amid the imbroglio consuming the Toronto-based lender.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such