LUXURY GOODS
LVMH to buy Off-White stake
French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE yesterday said that it intends to take a majority stake in the luxury streetwear label Off-White created by Virgil Abloh, the first black American creative director of a top French fashion house. LVMH is to take a 60 percent stake in Off-White for an undisclosed sum, a statement said. Abloh is to retain 40 percent and remain creative director for the men’s collections of LVMH’s Louis Vuitton fashion house.
TECHNOLOGY
IBM sales beat estimates
IBM Corp on Monday reported second-quarter revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, as a recovery in client spending powered strong growth in its cloud and consulting businesses. Sales at IBM’s cloud business rose 13 percent to US$7 billion. The company’s net income fell to US$1.33 billion, or US$1.47 per share, in the quarter that ended on June 30, from US$1.36 billion, or US$1.52 per share, a year earlier. Total revenue rose 3 percent to US$18.75 billion, it said.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla China registrations up
Tesla Inc saw registrations of its Chinese-made vehicles climb again last month as quarter-end promotions helped offset a string of negative press around customer complaints and quality concerns. Registrations of Model 3 sedans and Model Y sports utility vehicles made at Tesla’s Shanghai factory totaled 28,508 units last month, a 29 percent increase from May and more than double the figure in April, data from China Automotive Information Net showed. Model 3 registrations rebounded to 16,995, while Model Y registrations hit 11,513, a 10 percent drop from May.
AVIATION
Qatar eyes cargo planes
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker said he is ready to order wide-body freighter planes from Airbus SE or Boeing Co within a month or two if a new model is made available. The Persian Gulf carrier could place a “large customer order” for an A350 freighter planned by European manufacturer Airbus or a new 777F from its US rival before the end of the third quarter, al-Baker told the FlightPlan III Webinar. Al-Baker has lobbied for the aircraft before, but neither plane maker has committed to making a freighter version of the passenger jumbo jets.
DELIVERY
Swiggy closes funding round
Food delivery start-up Swiggy yesterday announced that it closed a US$1.25 billion funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Prosus, just days ahead of rival Zomato Ltd’s listing. New investors include Qatar Investment Authority, Falcon Edge Capital and Goldman Sachs, while existing backers Accel Partners and Wellington Management also participated, Swiggy said in a statement. The fundraising was heavily oversubscribed due to strong interest from investors, it said, without providing details or its market value.
SEMICONDUCTORS
GlobalFoundries IPO on
GlobalFoundries Inc, a chipmaker owned by an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government, is sticking with its plan for an initial public offering (IPO) next year, CEO Tom Caulfield said. Reports that GlobalFoundries is the subject of a takeover bid by Intel Corp are speculation, he said. “There’s nothing there in that discussion,” Caulfield told Bloomberg Television on Monday. Because the chipmaker is moving toward a share sale, “you can expect a lot of speculation to take place,” he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last