AUTOMAKERS
Mitsubishi fined in Germany
Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Co yesterday confirmed it paid a 25 million euro (US$29.7 million at the current rate of exchange) fine issued by German prosecutors over emissions fraud allegations earlier this year. German authorities last year raided 10 sites as part of a probe into suspected diesel emissions cheating involving Mitsubishi vehicles, with prosecutors saying they had opened a fraud investigation. Mitsubishi Motors said it was issued a fine notice of 25 million euros by the Frankfurt prosecutors office in late March. Bloomberg News said the settlement was sealed in March, but had not been previously disclosed.
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook under fire in EU
The European Consumer Organisation yesterday announced it had lodged a complaint with the European Commission against Facebook Inc’s attempt to modify the terms of service for the WhatsApp messaging service. The US tech titan has sought to nudge users of its messenger platform to accept new terms of service, but Facebook denies that this would allow WhatsApp to share more user data with its main social platform. In a statement announcing its complaint, the European Consumer Organisation accused Facebook of “unfairly” pressuring users to accept the handover and failing to explain it.
UNITED KINGDOM
Household wealth rising
A boom in Britain’s housing market and a surge in global share prices have led to windfall gains for middle-income and richer households during the COVID-19 pandemic, research from the Resolution Foundation think tank showed yesterday. The average British household saw its wealth rise by ￡7,800 (US$10,811) due to asset price rises and, to a lesser extent, lower day-to-day spending. The biggest percentage increase in wealth came for those in the middle of the wealth distribution, whose net assets increased in value by 9 percent to ￡80,500 per adult, driven by a sharp rise in house prices.
MEDIA
‘Daily Mail’ to go private
The Rothermere family is considering taking the owner of Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper private following a takeover approach for its insurance and risk division. The Rothermere Continuation Ltd would pay ￡2.51 for each remaining share of the company, London-based Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said in a statement yesterday. That implies an enterprise value of ￡810 million for the rest of the company, with DMGT assuming ￡230 million in debt. If the possible offer for Risk Management Solutions is declared unconditional, DMGT would pay a special dividend of cash and noncash assets, valued at about ￡6.10 per share, including its shares in auto-marketplace start-up Cazoo.
SHIPPING
Suez Canal nets US$5.84bn
The Suez Canal netted Egypt a record US$5.84 billion in the past tax year, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chairman Osama Rabie said on Sunday. “Despite various challenges, revenues from the canal rose sharply” in the fiscal year ending June 30, Rabie said. Authorities netted “the highest revenues in the history of the canal, hitting $5.84 billion,” a more than 2 percent higher increase from the previous year, he said in a statement. The SCA said that 9,763 ships had passed through the canal in the first six months of the year, 2 percent more than the same period last year. About 19,000 ships passed through the canal last year, it said.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
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