RETAIL
J.C. Penney lays off 360
Department store chain J.C. Penney Co Inc on Friday said it has cut more than 300 jobs and reported disappointing sales at established stores for the quarter that includes the year-end holiday season. It also delivered a muted outlook, with its shares falling 6 percent. The news overshadowed strong profits as investors worried about the firm’s ability to remake itself in a changing retail market. J.C. Penney eliminated 130 positions at its headquarters in Plano, Texas, and said restructuring regional, district and store support teams to eliminate bureaucracy led to 230 job cuts. It estimated the cuts will save US$20 million to US$25 million per year.
RETAIL
Agency files for Tesco retrial
Three former senior Tesco PLC executives look set to face a London jury for a second time over a ￡250 million (US$345.2 million) accounting scandal after their first trial was called off shortly before the jury was due to consider its verdict. The British Serious Fraud Office, which is prosecuting the case, on Friday said it had written to the court to seek a retrial of Tesco’s former finance director Carl Rogberg, former UK managing director Christopher Bush and former UK food commercial director John Scouler. The prosecution of the three men was launched after Tesco said in September 2014 that its profit forecast had been overstated by ￡250 million.
AUTOMOTIVE
Infineon teams up with SAIC
German computer chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG on Friday said it is teaming up with China’s biggest automaker, SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車), to produce power modules for the Chinese electric car market. Infineon said in a statement that it would hold a 49 percent stake in the new Shanghai-based company, SAIC Infineon Automotive Power Modules (SIAPM, 上汽英飛凌汽車功率半導體), which is to make inverters — vital parts that convert power from a battery to a form that can be used by a car’s engine. SAIC Motor is to hold the remaining 51 percent.
ALCOHOL
AB InBev boosts spending
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (AB InBev) is ramping up investment in Africa after seeing a boom in demand for its beer on the continent, building on the Budweiser brand owner’s US$106 billion takeover of SABMiller PLC in 2016. Shipments in the region excluding South Africa last year increased by as much as 20 percent, and premium brands such as Stella Artois and Corona are growing in popularity in South Africa, regional CEO Ricardo Tadeu said. “We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars on the continent this past year, most notably US$200 million in South Africa,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
GREECE
EU experts approve tranche
The government on Friday said that EU experts have approved a fresh cash injection under its bailout loan program, which is due to wrap up later this year. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that the 5.7 billion euros (US$7 billion) should be disbursed in the middle of this month following approval by lawmakers in several eurozone countries. The approval by experts working for the group of eurozone finance ministers marks the formal closure of the third review by Greece’s creditors under the current bailout program.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
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