MINING
Glencore losses deepen
Anglo-Swiss mining giant Glencore PLC yesterday said that it plunged deeper into the red last year, hit by the “extraordinary” challenge of COVID-19 and massive write-offs, especially on a mine closure in Zambia. The company said that it had a net loss of US$1.9 billion last year after writing off assets worth US$5.9 billion, compared with a net loss of US$404 million in 2019 following write-downs costing US$2.4 billion. The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on the global economy amounted to an “extraordinary” challenge for the company, which mines and trades basic raw materials globally. The trading arm of the company saw operating profit soar 41 percent to US$3.3 billion, reflecting the huge volatility of metal and oil prices. However, the mining arm reported a fall in operating profit of 13 percent to US$7.8 billion, it said.
INTERNET
Traveloka plans US IPO
Traveloka, Southeast Asia’s biggest online travel start-up, is planning to list in the US this year to raise funds using a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), CEO Ferry Unardi said. “SPAC is very efficient,” Unardi said in an interview yesterday. “If we can do it faster, we can then focus on execution and growing the company,” Unardi added. Traveloka might consider listing in Indonesia at a later stage, he added. Traveloka adds to a list of Indonesian start-ups seeking similar initial public offerings (IPOs) in the US via the SPAC method, which allows them to use funds raised from the IPOs to buy a private company that then takes over the listing. Investors — including Expedia Group Inc; Rocket Internet SE; GIC Pte, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund; and JD.com — have helped boost Traveloka’s valuation over the years. It was valued at US$3 billion in 2017, CB Insights said.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Bitcoin nears US$50,000
Bitcoin reached another record, coming ever closer to US$50,000, as the world’s largest cryptocurrency extends its breathtaking rally. The token yesterday climbed as much as 3.6 percent to US$49,913 in Asian trading, a composite of prices showed. Bitcoin’s volatile, fivefold advance over the past year towers above the returns from more traditional investments like stocks, gold and commodities. “Bitcoin volatility is likely to continue rising in the near term and remain elevated until it settles in around its next plateau,” Bloomberg Intelligence commodity strategist Mike McGlone said, adding that US$100,000 might be a long-term target.
UNITED KINGDOM
Tax hike likely needed: IFS
The government could need tax increases of about £60 billion (US$83.6 billion) if Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak wants to balance the books, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. The warning sets the tone for the Treasury’s budget on March 3, when Sunak is due to outline how he intends to address the ruinous legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has driven government borrowing to its highest in peacetime and forced him to deliver 13 emergency statements since he took office a year ago. The analysis, based on forecasts by Citigroup, indicates that the scarring left by the deepest slump in three centuries might be worse than the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted in November last year. However, the IFS said that now is not the time to be trying to fix the public finances, urging Sunak to bolster the recovery first.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six