CHINA
Virus funds earmarked
Governments of every level had allocated 108.75 billion yuan (US$15.58 billion) in special funds by Monday to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a Ministry of Finance official said yesterday. Social Insurance Division head Fu Jinling (傅金玲) said that Beijing had provided enterprises with 1 trillion yuan in social insurance payment relief this year to support the resumption of production. The nation is aiming to cut the total tax burden on enterprises by 510 billion yuan this year and is also allowing firms in virus-stricken Hubei Province to waive insurance payments for five months, he said.
UNITED STATES
Manufacturing index rises
Factory output last month expanded, despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the winning streak might prove short-lived. The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, on Monday said that its manufacturing index registered 50.1 last month. That is down from 50.9 in January, but anything above 50 signals growth. Fourteen of 18 manufacturing industries expanded last month, led by wood products and furniture manufacturers, data showed.
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
Thermo Fisher agrees deal
US laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc has agreed to buy Qiagen NV, a Dutch maker of tests for diseases including cancer and coronavirus, for about 9 billion euros (US$10 billion) after reviving discussions that broke off late last year. Investors are to receive 39 euros in cash for every Qiagen share, Thermo Fisher said yesterday. That is 23 percent higher than Monday’s closing price. Qiagen also sells products for food and forensic testing.
STEELMAKERS
Hitachi Metals mulling sale
Hitachi Metals Ltd, the specialty steel producer mostly owned by Japanese conglomerate Hitachi Ltd, is exploring a sale of its US-based unit Waupaca Foundry Inc, people familiar with the matter said. Hitachi Metals is talking to advisers about a potential divestment of the Wisconsin-based foundry unit, which could fetch about US$1 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The Japanese steelmaker bought Waupaca in 2014 for about US$1.3 billion.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Overseas spending dives
Visa Inc on Monday said that cardholders’ spending overseas has slowed sharply, especially for travel-related purchases, and that this quarter’s revenue growth would be about 2.5 to 3.5 percentage points lower than the outlook it gave on Jan. 30. “Cross-border growth rates have deteriorated week by week since the coronavirus outbreak in China, and trends through Feb. 28, 2020, do not yet fully reflect the impact of the coronavirus spreading outside of Asia,” Visa said in a filing. “As such, we anticipate that this deteriorating trend has not bottomed out yet.”
CONGLOMERATES
Jack Welch dies aged 84
Jack Welch, the US businessman who built General Electric Co into one of the world’s industrial flagships, died on Monday at the age of 84, the company said. Dubbed the “manager of the century” by Fortune magazine in 1999, Welch transformed General Electric into a sprawling conglomerate during his two decades as chief executive officer and was considered one of the most influential men in the global business community.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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