INDUSTRIAL SERVICES
ABB to buy GE division
ABB Ltd agreed to buy the industrial solutions business of General Electric Co (GE) in a deal valued US$2.6 billion that will accelerate the Swiss factory equipment supplier’s move into services spanning engineering to delivering power supplies, to next year’s Olympic Games in South Korea. The transaction is expected to generate cost savings of about US$200 million annually, the Zurich-based company said in a statement yesterday. GE started a bidding process for industrial solutions in December. Bloomberg News on Friday reported that the two companies were close to a deal. Chief executive Ulrich Spiesshofer has made digital solutions and services a cornerstone of his growth strategy and his latest deal will bolster its offering of critical power, transformers and related services for customers such as hospitals, data centers and refineries.
JAPAN
Japan Post stake sold
The government raised about ￥1.3 trillion (US$11.6 billion) selling a stake in Japan Post Holdings Co, completing the nation’s biggest public offering this century. The shares were sold to domestic and foreign investors for ￥1,322 apiece, 2 percent lower than yesterday’s closing price, Tokyo-based Japan Post said in a regulatory filing. Almost two years after the company was listed along with its banking and insurance units, Japan is further divesting its ownership partly to fund the reconstruction of areas destroyed by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the northeast. Demand for the offering withstood headwinds, including the stock’s underperformance, losses stemming from a botched acquisition, declining mail volumes and low interest rates that are eroding profitability.
UNITED KINGDOM
BOE warns consumer lenders
The Bank of England (BOE) said rapid gains in consumer credit could cause UK banks to suffer bigger losses than they are expecting if the economy weakens. “Lenders overall are placing too much weight on the recent performance of consumer lending in benign conditions as an indicator of underlying credit quality,” the bank’s Financial Policy Committee said yesterday. “As a result, they have been underestimating the losses they could incur in a downturn.” In the event of a recession, losses from defaults in consumer loans would reach ￡30 billion (US$40.6 billion) within three years, the bank’s stress tests showed.
TECHNOLOGY
Uber urges talks with London
Uber yesterday called for talks with London’s transport regulator to be held as soon as possible and pledged to make improvements in the way it reports serious incidents in a bid to retain its license. On Friday, Transport for London, which regulates transport, deemed Uber unfit to run a taxi service and decided not to renew its license to operate, which was to end this week, citing the firm’s approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers. London police earlier this year complained that Uber, which is backed by Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, was either not disclosing, or taking too long to report, serious crimes including sexual assaults and that this put the public at risk. Asked about the criticism, Uber UK head of cities Fred Jones apologized about a specific incident and said the firm was working with the Metropolitan Police to make improvements to its reporting process. “We’re working with the police to figure out how we can do this in a better way that’s helpful to them,” Jones told BBC radio.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based
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