SWEDEN
PM touts sturdy economy
The economy is robust enough to withstand the effects of the energy crunch that has gripped Europe and filtered into Scandinavia, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said. “We have a very, very strong economy,” Lofven said in an interview in New York on Sunday. “If we have dramatically higher prices in the long term, that will affect consumption, but I don’t think we’re there.” Sweden’s debt to GDP ratio has held below 40 percent even during the COVID-19 crisis and remains one of the lowest in Europe. That measure is set to fall to about 35 percent, Lofven said.
AIRLINES
Lufthansa to issue shares
Europe’s largest airline group, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, said on Sunday that it would seek to raise more than 2 billion euros (US$2.34 billion) with a capital increase. The German company said its executive board had agreed to a share issue from tomorrow and “the gross proceeds are expected to amount to 2.140 billion euros.” The transaction, intended to improve its equity position and help repay state aid provided in the course of the pandemic, was underwritten by a syndicate of 14 banks, Lufthansa said.
ELECTRONICS
Merck to invest 3bn euros
Merck KGaA plans to spend more than 3 billion euros through 2025 on its electronics business to capitalize on rising demand for semiconductor and display panel materials. The German company would expand production capacity, bolster research and development spending and is also considering bolt-on acquisitions, it said in a statement yesterday. The company makes materials and technologies for computer chips and display screens, as well as effect pigments — products that are sold to the automotive, printing and cosmetics industries. A global semiconductor shortage has been devastating vehicle production this year.
BANKING
JPMorgan begins expansion
JPMorgan Chase & Co this week plans to launch a digital retail bank in the UK, the first step in the its strategy to expand its consumer business overseas. The operation, called Chase, is today to start with current accounts, a person familiar with the matter said. The product offering would broaden over time with the bank planning to invest “hundreds of millions” in the venture, Sanoke Viswanathan, head of JPMorgan’s International Consumer division, said in an interview with the Financial Times. The US bank agreed to buy UK digital wealth manager Nutmeg Saving and Investment in June, and Viswanathan told the Financial Times that more acquisitions might be considered.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Bitcoin ‘threatens’ the planet
Mining for bitcoin generates substantial electronic waste that “represents a growing threat to the environment,” a study said. The average life cycle of the powerful computers used to unearth the units of the world’s leading cryptocurrency is only 1.3 years, report coauthor Alex de Vries said on Friday. De Vries said that this was “extremely short compared to any” other electronic devices such as iPhones. At 30,700 tonnes, the amount of electronic waste generated by bitcoin mining in the 12 months to May was “comparable to the amount of small IT and telecommunication equipment waste produced by a country like the Netherlands,” the report said.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained