INVESTMENT
Start-up raises US$130m
Wolt Enterprises Oy, a food delivery start-up based in Helsinki, has landed US$130 million in new investment to increase its European expansion and fund a hiring spree. The company would use its new funding to accelerate its growth, adding new cities and countries, Miki Kuusi, Wolt’s 29-year-old cofounder and chief executive, said in an interview. The company would also hire an additional 1,000 people in the next 18 months, he added. It currently employs about 450 people.
SOFTWARE
Adobe revenue surprises
Adobe Inc reported quarterly revenue that topped Wall Street estimates, signaling that the Photoshop maker’s expanding product suite is continuing to fuel growth. Sales increased 25 percent to US$2.74 billion in the fiscal second quarter from a year earlier, the San Jose, California-based company said on Tuesday. However, it gave a profit forecast that fell short of analysts’ projections for the second consecutive quarter. Earnings, excluding some expenses, would be about US$1.95 a share in the current period, it said.
AIRLINES
Air NZ CEO to resign
Air New Zealand Ltd CEO Christopher Luxon is resigning after more than six years in the role, as he raised the possibility of a new career in politics. Luxon, 48, is to step down from day-to-day leadership of the airline on Sept. 25, the company said yesterday. An international search for his replacement is under way and a new CEO is expected to be announced in the near future, chairman Tony Carter said in a statement.
TAXATION
Islands to publish data
Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man plan by 2023 to publish secret information on ownership of companies registered in the crown dependencies, they announced yesterday, heeding calls for greater tax transparency. The islands have responded by jointly proposing “a series of steps regarding each jurisdiction’s central register of beneficial ownership information of companies and how they will move toward developing international standards of accessibility and transparency.”
MALAYSIA
Bank sees upside to dispute
The central bank, which has already downgraded its economic growth outlook for this year amid an escalating trade dispute, sees a partial offset as companies shift operations from China to sidestep higher US tariffs. In her first formal interview with international media since she took office almost a year ago, Bank Negara MalaysiaGovernor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus said that the trade diversion could add about 10 basis points to this year’s growth rate. That would be on top of the bank’s current forecast of 4.3 to 4.8 percent for this year.
UNITED KINGDOM
Brexit fears erode prospects
Hotel operator Whitbread PLC and leather-goods maker Mulberry Group PLC yesterday reported lower sales in their home market as the uncertainty around Brexit erodes business prospects. Whitbread said that first-quarter comparable sales dropped 3.7 percent, while Mulberry reported that UK revenue fell 6 percent in the year through March, driving it to a ￡5 million (US$6.28 million) pretax loss. Whitbread said that the company is opening more rooms in London, but it is cautious about the outlook for travel elsewhere in the country.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
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