CHINA
Key tasks critical to growth
The nation’s economy can grow this year if key tasks set out by the government, including ensuring employment and people’s livelihoods, are achieved, Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) said yesterday. It is “practical and realistic” to not set a numerical growth target this year, as the nation is not immune from the economic shocks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Li told a news conference as the annual session of the National People’s Congress in Bejing closed. The government has the ability to take further action should the outlook deteriorate, he said.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan posts US$6.2bn loss
Nissan Motor Co yesterday reported a staggering ￥671.2 billion (US$6.2 billion) annual net loss, its first in more than a decade, as it battles weak demand and the effects of the pandemic. The automaker said that it was slashing global production by 20 percent and confirmed that it would close a plant in Barcelona, Spain, that employs 3,000 people as it tries to return to profitability. The net loss for the year to March compares with net profit of ￥319.1 billion a year earlier. It declined to issue a forecast for the current fiscal year because of ongoing uncertainty.
TELECOMS
Singtel slashes dividend
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) yesterday cut its expected dividend after profit slumped to the lowest since 1993. The carrier booked a charge for costs related to its investment in an India-based carrier and said that the pandemic crimped mobile service revenue. Net income plunged 65 percent to S$1.08 billion (US$760.5 million) in the year ended March, the company said in a statement. That compares with the S$1.28 billion average of analyst estimates. The carrier is to pay a dividend of S$0.1225 per share for the year, compared with its previous outlook for S$0.175.
LIGHTING
GE to sell light bulb division
General Electric Co (GE) is getting out of the light bulb business, shedding a foundational enterprise from the days of Thomas Edison, the company announced on Wednesday. The 128-year-old company, in belt-tightening mode due to the effects of the pandemic, is to divest GE Lighting to smart home company Savant Systems LLC. The GE logo would still appear on light bulbs sold by Savant under a licensing agreement included in the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple buys start-up Inductiv
Apple Inc has bought machine learning start-up Inductiv Inc, adding to more than a dozen artificial intelligence-related acquisitions by the technology giant in the past few years. The engineering team from Waterloo, Ontario-based Inductiv in the past few weeks joined Apple to work on Siri, machine learning and data science. Inductiv developed technology that uses artificial intelligence to automate the task of identifying and correcting errors in data.
UNITED KINGDOM
Brexit discussions to resume
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to resume Brexit talks in Brussels next month, the Times reported yesterday. The newspaper cited Downing Street’s negotiator with the EU, David Frost, as saying that Johnson would meet the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council to formally assess the state of the talks.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Pegatron Corp (和碩), an iPhone assembler for Apple Inc, is to spend NT$5.64 billion (US$186.82 million) to acquire HTC Corp’s (宏達電) factories in Taoyuan and invest NT$578.57 million in its India subsidiary to expand manufacturing capacity, after its board approved the plans on Wednesday. The Taoyuan factories would expand production of consumer electronics, and communication and computing devices, while the India investment would boost production of communications devices and possibly automotive electronics later, a Pegatron official told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. Pegatron expects to complete the Taoyuan factory transaction in the third quarter, said the official, who declined to be
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