AUTOMAKERS
EU opens antitrust probe
The European Commission is investigating five carmakers including Renault SA and Peugeot-maker PSA Group for possible antitrust violations on car parts, German weekly Der Spiegel reported, without saying where it obtained the information. Nissan Motor Co, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are also being investigated, the report said. The probe centers around whether the companies colluded to raise prices by as much as 25 percent on car parts with the help of consulting firm Accenture.
ITALY
Fitch maintains rating
Italy’s sovereign credit rating was left unchanged at two notches above junk by Fitch Ratings, which said that an extremely high level of general government debt and the absence of structural fiscal adjustment still pose risks. The level was confirmed at “BBB,” while the outlook was maintained at negative. Fitch forecasts GDP growth of 0.3 percent this year, down from 0.8 percent last year, with investment growth falling to 0.4 percent from 3.8 percent last year. It expects an increase in the general government deficit to 2.3 percent of GDP this year, from 1.9 percent last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Twitter cofounder departs
Twitter Inc cofounder and former chief executive Evan Williams is stepping down from the board, leaving the one-to-many messaging service to focus on “other projects,” the firm said. Williams is to depart the Twitter board at the end of this week, Twitter said in a filing on Friday. Williams ceded his role as chief executive to Dick Costolo in 2010.
ENRON
Former CEO leaves prison
Former Enron Corp chief executive Jeffrey Skilling has been released from prison after serving 12 years for his role in a fraud scheme that sent the US energy giant into bankruptcy. The Houston Chronicle reported that Skilling, 65, was released on Thursday after completing about half of what was initially a 24-year sentence, but was reduced on appeal. Skilling was in May 2006 convicted of 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud and insider trading, and ordered to forfeit about US$45 million in assets, including his home.
BANKING
EY probed over scandal
EY, the accounting firm engaged by Swedbank AB following a report that the bank was involved in money laundering, is being probed in Denmark over an Estonian dirty-money scandal surrounding Danske Bank A/S. The investigation of EY has been running since October, after Danske admitted that much of the U$230 billion that flowed through a tiny Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015 was suspicious, a Danish government spokesman said on Friday
ENGINEERING
SNC writes down oil assets
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc, a Canadian engineering and construction giant, on Friday posted a C$1.6 billion (US$1.22 billion) quarterly loss. The Montreal-based firm wrote down significant oil and gas assets and warned that its business prospects in Saudi Arabia, where it has major engineering contracts, were worsening because of a diplomatic row between Ottawa and Riyadh.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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