BANKING
UBS profit nearly doubles
Swiss banking giant UBS Group AG yesterday said that it nearly doubled its net profit in its best third quarter in a decade, the latest in a string of global lenders to report better-than-expected results, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The world’s largest wealth manager saw net profit jump 99 percent year-on-year to US$2.5 billion, it said in a statement, handily beating analyst expectations for US$1.5 billion. The rise came after net profit dropped by 11 percent in the second quarter as the firm stepped up provisions for bad loans with the global economy in a tailspin due to the pandemic. UBS’ profits received a one-off boost in the third quarter from the US$631 million sale of a majority stake in its fund platform Fondcenter AG to Clearstream Banking AG, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Borse group.
FOOD
Impossible enters Asia
Impossible Foods Inc’s faux beef burgers would be sold in grocery stores in Hong Kong and Singapore starting yesterday, the company said as it vies to bolster its presence in Asia and before entering the potentially lucrative mainland China market. Its Asian launch comes as the maker of plant-based meat said it was still awaiting approval from Chinese regulators. Its key ingredient, heme, made from genetically modified yeast, requires approval in the country. “We are optimistic it could happen in the next year or even in the next several months,” chief executive Pat Brown told an online news conference. Last month, rival Beyond Meat Inc said it had signed a deal to open a production facility near Shanghai, as the company ramps up its focus on the rapidly growing Chinese market. Brown said Impossible wanted to build a complete plant-based supply chain in the country and make it a domestic industry.
EUROPEAN UNION
Record demand for bonds
The bloc’s first offering of social bonds was said to receive orders of more than 150 billion euros (US$177 billion), a record for a dual-tranche issue in the eurozone. Investors are being drawn to the sale because of the scarcity of securities stamped with an “AAA” credit rating and with social bonds the fastest-growing part of sustainable finance. The offering, also the bloc’s first joint debt since it agreed a landmark COVID-19 pandemic recovery deal, is aimed at providing funding for a job support program. The bloc was yesterday selling 10-year debt via banks at 3 basis points over midswaps, a person familiar with the matter said. It is also issuing 20-year securities at 14 basis points over midswaps, as it seeks to build a liquid market.
EQUITIES
NYSE gives ultimatum
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) told New Jersey lawmakers that it is prepared to move operations out of state should they impose a new tax on electronic trades via data servers. The world’s largest exchange by market capitalization late last month conducted a test “for a wholesale transition out of New Jersey,” Hope Jarkowski, co-head of government affairs for NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange Inc, told a state assembly financial institutions and insurance committee hearing conducted by video feed. Lawmakers in New Jersey, a state so fiscally damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic that it is borrowing US$4.5 billion to plug a budget gap, are considering charging a temporary tax of a 100th-cent per trade, down from an earlier proposal of a quarter-cent levy.
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
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