AVIATION
Rolls-Royce to layoff 3,000
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC plans to eliminate 3,000 jobs in the UK this year, the first wave of cuts that could ultimately see the jet-engine maker emerge from the downturn a much smaller business. The London-based manufacturer said it expects to trim a total of 8,000 positions from the aviation division. That would make up the bulk of the 9,000 global reductions it announced last month. Rolls-Royce is offering voluntary redundancy packages to all of its aviation workforce and part of its back-office staff, it said in an e-mail on Wednesday.
AUTOMAKERS
Aston Martin to cut 500 jobs
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC plans to cut as many as 500 jobs to cope with lower demand for luxury vehicles amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The British company would begin consulting with employees and unions in coming days about building fewer sports vehicles with front engines, Aston Martin said in a statement yesterday. The automaker is targeting savings of about ￡18 million (US$22.5 million) in operating and manufacturing costs, while also lowering capital expenditure by a further ￡10 million.
RETAIL
Adidas sees growth in China
German sportswear maker Adidas AG yesterday said it had returned to sales growth in China last month, after store closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic sent business plummeting. China is “the company’s first major market on the road to recovery,” Adidas said in a statement, saying sales from April to this month should reach roughly the same level as last year now that its shops have reopened. While fewer people visited stores, the company said a bigger share of those who did were buying, while it had seen “exceptional” growth in online orders.
ENERGY
Reliance ends rights issue
India’s telecom-to-oil giant Reliance Industries Ltd on Wednesday completed a massive US$7 billion rights issue in what it touted as the world’s biggest by a nonfinancial institution in a decade. Reliance, owned by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, had said the fundraising drive was meant to pay down debt and help shift the company to a digital future. The firm said the rights issue was subscribed 1.59 times and attracted “huge investor interest.” Ambani said in a statement that the successful rights issue was a “vote of confidence” by investors in the Indian economy.
CHEMICALS
Court blocks Bayer chemical
German agrochemicals group Bayer AG has been blocked from selling its dicamba herbicide in the US after an appeals court rejected a federal regulator’s permit for the product. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) substantially understated the herbicide-related risks and failed to look into other risks related to dicamba, the court said on Wednesday. Bayer said in a statement that it was working to obtain a new EPA registration for the herbicide for next year and beyond.
ENERGY
Total buys wind farm stake
French oil company Total SA has bought a 51 percent stake from utility SSE PLC in the development of a massive wind farm off the coast of Scotland. The ￡70 million investment in the Seagreen 1 wind farm would be Total’s first significant foray into offshore wind as it seeks to expand its green energy business. SSE could also be in line for future payments of ￡60 million based on certain performance conditions, Total said.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
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