AUTOMAKERS
Nissan sues Ghosn
Japanese giant Nissan Motor Co yesterday filed a civil lawsuit to reclaim ￥10 billion (US$91 million) from former chairman Carlos Ghosn for what it called “years of his misconduct and fraudulent activity.” Nissan said the damages had been calculated on the basis of the cost to the firm of his “corrupt practices.” It accused him of “the use of overseas residential property without paying rent, private use of corporate jets, payments to his sister, payments to his personal lawyer in Lebanon.”
TECHNOLOGY
Softbank profits fall
Major Japanese technology investor Softbank Group Corp yesterday said its net profit plunged nearly 70 percent for the nine months to December last year as investments in companies such as WeWork Cos and Uber Technologies Inc took a hit. Its bottom-line profit lost 69 percent to ￥476.6 billion for the period as the firm suffered an operating loss of ￥13.0 billion. The company did not publish its outlook for the year to March.
MINING
Vale hit hard last year
Brazilian giant Vale SA on Tuesday said its iron-ore production plunged last year, calling it “the most challenging year of its history” after a dam collapse at one of its mines killed 270 people. Vale, the world’s largest iron ore producer, said its output of the metal fell to 302 million tonnes last year, down 21.5 percent from 2018. The company said in a statement it was hit hard in January last year by the dam collapse at its mine in Brumadinho, southeastern Brazil.
APPAREL
Under Armour shares down
Under Armour Inc’s shares on Tuesday plummeted 16.7 percent after the company said it anticipates a big financial hit from the coronavirus outbreak in China. It also said it might need to book hundreds of millions of US dollars in charges as it restructures its business. The athletic gear maker expects the outbreak to drag its first-quarter sales down by US$50 million to US$60 million. It is also looking at pre-tax charges this year of between US$325 million and US$425 million related to restructuring.
UNITED KINGDOM
Brexit stifles growth
Uncertainty related to Brexit seems to have weighed heavily on the economy during the final quarter of last year as output flatlined. The Office for National Statistics on Tuesday said that increases in the services and construction sectors were offset by another poor showing from manufacturing, particularly the auto industry. As a result, the economy stagnated following upwardly revised 0.5 percent growth in the third quarter. Overall, the economy grew by 1.4 percent last year.
TELECOMS
Court OKs Sprint takeover
T-Mobile US Inc has won court approval for its US$26.5 billion takeover of Sprint Corp, defeating a state-led lawsuit that sought to block the industry-altering wireless deal. The decision by a district judge in Manhattan is a huge win for T-Mobile and its owner, Deutsche Telekom AG, as well as Softbank Group Corp, Sprint’s parent. The combined company, which would operate under the T-Mobile name, would have a regular monthly subscriber base of about 80 million — in the same league as AT&T Inc, which has 75 million subscribers, and Verizon Communications Inc, which has 114 million.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
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
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
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