SINGAPORE
SGX tightens auditor rules
Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX) is tightening its regulation of auditors and property assessors who work with listed companies, in the wake of a series of accounting scandals in the city-state in recent years. All companies whose main listing is in the city-state would be required to appoint an auditor registered with its Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority for their financial year beginning on or after Jan. 1 next year, the exchange said in a statement yesterday. The exchange said that it could also ask listed firms to appoint a second auditor if it finds evidence of “pervasive” misstatements in their records.
CHINA
Resale of bad loans to pilot
The government plans to allow some commercial banks to start selling soured personal loans to distressed asset managers as soon as this month, people familiar with the matter said. At a meeting convened by the official credit assets transfer center last month, banks and state-run bad-loan managers were asked to accelerate preparations to ensure a smooth start of the trial program this month, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (中國工商銀行) could be the first seller, other people said. Details of the trial are not yet finalized and are still subject to approval by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the people said.
UNITED STATES
Coffee bars ‘need two years’
Coffee chains are to take two years to fully recover from an US$11.5 billion sales plunge that wiped out a quarter of their market in a year when COVID-19 kept customers from cafes, market researcher Allegra Group said. The branded coffee chain segment, which is dominated by Starbucks Corp and Inspire Brands Inc’s Dunkin’ Donuts, saw sales plunge 24 percent to US$36 billion in the past 12 months, predominantly due to COVID-19 disruptions, the London-based group said in a report on Monday. The industry would return to pre-pandemic sales by 2023, Allegra said, adding that 65 percent of surveyed industry leaders said that trading conditions would improve during the next 12 months.
FINANCIAL
Walmart enters fintech
In a bid to better leverage its millions of customers, Walmart Inc has created a financial technology start-up to win more of their spending. The company formed a partnership with Ribbit Capital, an investor in stock-trading platform Robinhood, to start a venture that “will bring together Walmart’s retail knowledge and scale with Ribbit’s fintech expertise to deliver tech-driven financial experiences tailored to Walmart’s customers and associates,” Walmart said in a statement. Fintech companies aim to give consumers ways to save, borrow and invest online or via cellphones without dealing with a traditional bank.
RETAIL
M&S buys fashion brand
British retailer Marks & Spencer Group PLC (M&S) on Monday said that it has purchased the Jaeger fashion brand from the administrators of Jaeger Retail Ltd. M&S said that it is in the final stages of agreeing to the purchase of product and supporting marketing assets from the administrators and expected to fully complete the deal later this month. No purchase figures were disclosed. Before going into administration, Jaeger was part of Philip Day’s Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group.
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],”