INTERNET
Tencent beats forecast
Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) revenue grew a faster-than-expected 29 percent after it expanded the world’s largest online gaming empire in defiance of an economic downturn. Sales rose to 114.9 billion yuan (US$16.5 billion) in the three months that ended in June, versus the 112.4 billion yuan average forecast. Net income was 33.1 billion yuan, compared with the 27.3 billion yuan projected. China’s biggest social media company has benefited from an Internet resurgence during COVID-19, but is grappling with economic malaise as well as a US ban on its WeChat (微信) app with potentially far-ranging effects.
BANKING
Amro to wind down units
ABN Amro Bank NV is to stop providing corporate finance outside Europe and exit trade and commodity financing altogether as the Dutch bank tries to turn around an investment banking division hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. As many as 800 jobs, or one-third of the total, are at risk in a plan to hive off and wind down activities that account for about 45 percent of the unit’s client loans, the bank said yesterday. The process would take three to four years, it said. The bank reported a net loss of 5 million euros (US$5.9 million) for the quarter on writedowns and a slowdown in lending prompted by the pandemic.
E-COMMERCE
Asos has positive outlook
British online fashion retailer Asos PLC yesterday forecast full-year sales and profit significantly ahead of market expectations, saying it was benefiting from stronger-than-anticipated underlying demand. It said revenue growth for its 2019-2020 year was now expected to be 17 to 19 percent with pretax profit in the region of £130 million to £150 million (US$170 million to US$196 million). Asos made a pretax profit of £33.1 million in 2018-2019. “Looking forward, the consumer and economic outlook remains uncertain and it is unclear how long the current favorable shopping behavior will persist,” Asos said.
ELECTRONICS
Court finds Apple at fault
Apple Inc must pay more than US$500 million in damages and interest for 4G patent infringements held by intellectual property company PanOptis Patent Management LLC, a Texas court has ruled. The US tech giant — now worth almost US$2 trillion — would appeal Tuesday’s decision, local media said. PanOptis took Apple to court in February last year, saying it refused to pay for the use of 4G LTE technologies in its smartphones, tablets and watches. The Texas court has twice ruled against Apple in the past, demanding it pay hundreds of millions of dollars to VirnetX Holding Corp — another company specializing in patent litigation.
VIETNAM
Trade surplus increases
The country last month recorded a trade surplus of US$2.8 billion, widening from a surplus of US$1.85 billion in June, government customs data released yesterday showed. Exports rose 10.2 percent from June to US$24.87 billion, while imports were up 6.7 percent to US$22.10 billion, the Customs Department said in a statement. For the first seven months of this year, exports rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier to US$147.61 billion, while imports fell 3 percent to US$139.21 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$8.4 billion.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”