FRANCE
Economic activity recovers
Economic activity last month almost reached pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels as businesses largely shrugged off some renewed restrictions while supply difficulties increasingly constrained production. Activity was 1 to 1.5 percent below normal, the highest it has been since the pandemic struck, according to the Bank of France’s monthly survey of 8,500 firms. While business leaders expect a similar performance for this month, the share of companies reporting supply difficulties rose for the third consecutive month to 49 percent last month. In construction, the measure was stable at 60 percent. The auto industry has suffered particularly from a shortage of semiconductors as order books fill up.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla mandates masks
Tesla Inc has told workers at its Nevada battery factory they would be required to wear a mask indoors starting yesterday regardless of vaccination status, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Workers at the Reno, Nevada-area facility had previously been required to wear a mask if they were not vaccinated, but could avoid that requirement if they were, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter. Tesla is the latest company to mandate masks after the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 forced the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse course and recommend that even fully vaccinated individuals wear masks indoors.
INSURANCE
Westpac to sell unit
Westpac Banking Corp has agreed to sell its life insurance unit to Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc’s Australian subsidiary TAL for A$900 million (US$660 million) as Australia’s second-largest lender continues to jettison non-core assets to focus on lending. The completion of the transaction is expected to happen in the second half of next year, Westpac said in a statement yesterday. Under the agreement, Westpac is to enter a 20-year exclusive strategic alliance with TAL to provide the bank’s customers with life insurance products. “This transaction is another step in simplifying the bank while continuing to help customers with their life insurance needs,” Jason Yetton, Westpac’s specialist businesses and group strategy head, said in the statement.
TOBACCO
Philip Morris raises offer
Philip Morris International Inc raised its offer for Vectura Group PLC to US$1.4 billion, two days after private-equity firm Carlyle increased its bid for the British asthma drug maker, highlighting the cigarette maker’s drive to shift away from cigarettes and nicotine. The company on Sunday offered £1.65 per share for Vectura, following Carlyle’s Friday bid of £1.55. Carlyle initially agreed in May to buy Vectura, a maker of inhalers and nebulizers, before Philip Morris emerged with a competing offer.
INVESTMENT
Berkshire profit up 7 percent
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Saturday reported a 7 percent gain in profit for the second quarter, as many of the conglomerate’s businesses recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. Berkshire Hathaway, based in Omaha, Nebraska, said it earned US$28.1 billion, or US$18,488 per Class A share, during the second quarter. A year earlier, Berkshire reported a profit of US$26.3 billion, or US$16,314 per Class A per share. Operating earnings improved to US$6.7 billion, or US$4,400 per Class A share, during the quarter.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”