BANKING
Credit Suisse laments loan
Credit Suisse Group AG yesterday said it recorded its best start to a year in a decade before the implosion this month of Greensill Capital pushed it into the deepest crisis. Revenue at the securities unit rose more than 50 percent in the first two months of the year and pretax income for the group was the best in a decade, the Swiss lender said. However, the bank warned that it might have to take a charge on a loan it extended to Greensill Capital before the firm filed for insolvency. Credit Suisse said it recovered US$50 million of a US$140 million loan it made to Greensill Capital late last year.
TELECOMS
Rogers to buy rival
Canadian telecom Rogers Communications Inc on Monday said that it had reached an amicable agreement to buy rival Shaw Telecommunications Inc in a deal valued at C$26 billion (US$21 billion), creating a new heavyweight rival for Bell Canada and Telus Communcations Inc. Rogers is to pay C$40.50 in cash per share for its competitor, for a total of C$20 billion. That is 70 percent higher than the recent share price, Rogers said in a joint statement with its rival. Rogers said it would also take on its rival’s debt of C$6 billion, bringing the total deal to about C$26 billion.
MALAYSIA
Glove maker charged
The government has charged glove maker Top Glove Corp Bhd with 10 counts of failing to provide worker accommodation that meets the minimum standards of the Department of Labor, state news agency Bernama said yesterday. Top Glove, the world’s largest medical glove maker, has pleaded not guilty to the charges levied by the sessions court in the northwestern city of Ipoh, the agency said. Ten of the firm’s accommodation sites for foreign workers in the state of Perak were not certified by the department, it said. Court hearings are to resume on April 28.
TECHNOLOGY
Nokia plans job cuts
Nokia Oyj yesterday said that it plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs in the next few years as it looks for new ways to save money and stay competitive with rival Ericsson AB. The measures are intended to cut 600 million euros (US$716 million) off Nokia’s cost base by the end of 2023, the Finnish company said in a statement. The decision does not entail a change of outlook for next year, it said. The job cuts could see Nokia parting ways with as much as 10 percent of its workforce, and the company said its restructuring plan could cost as much as 700 million euros over the next two years.
EUROZONE
Ministers warn over debt
Finance ministers on Monday said that they would not tighten spending given the COVID-19 pandemic, but warned that soaring debt levels would eventually have to be fixed. Meeting by videoconference, the 19 ministers from countries that use the euro agreed that pulling back on the spending too soon could stifle a recovery. “For the time being, and as long as the acute health emergency prevails, broad fiscal measures remain necessary to protect citizens and companies,” the ministers said in a statement. “We’re united, and we’re determined in our efforts to protect jobs to protect businesses, and to protect our citizens in these very acute days of a continued health crisis,” said Eurogroup president Paschal Donohoe, who is also Irish minister for finance.
OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek (深度求索) is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods to extract results from leading US artificial intelligence (AI) models to train the next generation of its breakthrough R1 chatbot, a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News showed. In the memo, sent on Thursday to the US House of Representatives Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of “ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs.” The company said it had detected “new, obfuscated methods” designed to evade OpenAI’s defenses
NEW IMPORTS: Car dealer PG Union Corp said it would consider introducing US-made models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Stellantis’ RAM 1500 to Taiwan Tesla Taiwan yesterday said that it does not plan to cut its car prices in the wake of Washington and Taipei signing the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade on Thursday to eliminate tariffs on US-made cars. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan said it is planning to lower the price of its five models imported from the US after the zero tariff comes into effect. Tesla in a statement said it has no plan to adjust the prices of the US-made Model 3, Model S and Model X as tariffs are not the only factor the automaker uses to determine pricing policies. Tesla said
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Australian singer Kylie Minogue says “nothing compares” to performing live, but becoming an international wine magnate in under six years has been quite a thrill for the Spinning Around star. Minogue launched her first own-label wine in 2020 in partnership with celebrity drinks expert Paul Schaafsma, starting with a basic rose but quickly expanding to include sparkling, no-alcohol and premium rose offerings. The actress and singer has since wracked up sales of around 25 million bottles, with her carefully branded products pitched at low-to mid-range prices in dozens of countries. Britain, Australia and the United States are the biggest markets. “Nothing compares to performing
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