AVIATION
GE nears US$30bn deal
General Electric Co (GE) is nearing a US$30 billion-plus deal to combine its aircraft-leasing business with Ireland’s AerCap Holdings NV, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. Details of how the deal would be structured were not immediately known, but an announcement was expected yesterday, assuming the talks do not fall apart, the Journal said. The unit, known as GE Capital Aviation Services, is one of the world’s biggest jet-leasing companies and leases passenger aircraft made by companies including Boeing Co and Airbus SE. It owns, services or has on order about 1,650 aircraft, according to its Web site.
BANKING
DBS docks CEO’s pay
DBS Holdings Group Ltd cut chief executive officer Piyush Gupta’s total compensation for last year by 24 percent after Southeast Asia’s largest lender posted its first annual drop in profit for four years. The bank slashed Gupta’s bonus by 27 percent, resulting in a 24 percent decline in his overall compensation to S$9.2 million (US$6.8 million) for the performance year, down from S$12.1 million a year earlier, DBS said in its annual report yesterday. The reduction reflects the “extremely challenging operating environment,” it said. Excluding his pay, the median decline in total remuneration and variable pay of the bank’s management committee members for 2019 and last year was 12 percent and 17 percent respectively.
BANKING
ECB watching crisis-hit firm
European Central Bank (ECB) supervisors have asked banks for details about outstanding loans to Greensill Capital and its client GFG Alliance, the Financial Times reported, citing four people familiar with the matter. Regulators are asking for the details as they try to determine whether a crisis is contained, the report said. Three more directors of Greensill Capital have resigned as the trade-finance company faces a fight for survival following the flight of its top backers. One person told the newspaper that the move was standard and did not reflect heightened concern. Apollo Global Management’s talks to acquire part of Greensill were at “full speed” over the weekend, and “a lot of technical details still need to be ironed out,” one person told the paper.
BANKING
Central banks lack diversity
Just one of the 31 central bank governors appointed last year was a woman, with Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Hong joining a global group that now consists of 15 female central bank chiefs, according to the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum’s latest gender balance report. That means not even one in 10 central banks is headed by a woman. “While attention is on new accommodative monetary policy measures and lending operations, central banks should not fall behind on measures to correct the lack of diversity,” the forum said.
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Meitu invests in crypto
China’s Meitu Inc (美圖), taking a page from Tesla Inc, has become the latest corporation to invest in cryptocurrency as digital coin prices head into the stratosphere. Meitu, which makes an app that helps touch up user-profile pictures, on Sunday said it bought 15,000 units of ether for US$22.1 million and 379.1 bitcoins for US$17.9 million on the open market on Friday.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
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