FINANCE
IMF backs its leader
The IMF yesterday expressed “full confidence” in its managing director in response to allegations that World Bank staff were pressured to change business rankings for China in an effort to placate Beijing. The IMF’s 24-member executive board said in a statement that its review “did not conclusively demonstrate that the managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, played an improper role” in the situation in her former role as a top official of the World Bank. However, the board said the investigation into possible misconduct by World Bank staff was continuing.
BANKING
SocGen to cut 3,700 jobs
French bank Societe Generale SA (SocGen) yesterday said it would cut 3,700 jobs between 2023 and 2025, as it merges its retail network with that of its unit Credit du Nord, but that there would be no forced redundancies. The new retail bank targets a headcount of 25,000 employees and the job cuts would come about through natural attrition, which is estimated at 1,500 a year until 2025. Announced in September last year, the merger would create a single bank with one branch network, one head office and one IT system serving nearly 10 million clients. SocGen said the regrouped network would have about 1,450 branches in 2025, and that the regrouping of the branches would not involve an exit from any town.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla China shipments rise
Tesla Inc’s shipments of China-made cars to the local market rose for a second straight month last month, even as general auto sales declined. The electric-vehicle maker reported domestic shipments of 52,153 units last month, following a near 50 percent jump in August. The automaker exported 3,853 vehicles from its Shanghai factory, China’s Passenger Car Association said yesterday. That meant Tesla’s total China shipments climbed 27 percent from August to 56,006. The increase is in line with the broader trend for the automaker, which delivered a record 241,300 cars worldwide in the third quarter.
PROPERTY
Sinic warns of default
Sinic Holdings Group Co (新力控股集團) yesterday said it does not expect to repay a US$250 million dollar bond due on Monday next week and that might trigger cross-default on its two other notes. The Shanghai-based developer has US$694 million in dollar bonds outstanding, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. The firm last month missed domestic payments, sparking an 87 percent stock plunge. Meanwhile, Fantasia Holdings Group Co (花樣年控股集團) announced two directors quit the troubled Chinese developer, leaving it in breach of Hong Kong listing rules. The departures leave Fantasia with only one independent non-executive director. According to listing rules, it must have at least three.
UNITED KINGDOM
Jobless rate eases to 4.5%
The nation’s unemployment rate eased as the economy reopened, but vacancies hit another record peak before the end of the government’s furlough jobs support scheme, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement yesterday. The unemployment rate slid to 4.5 percent in the three months to August, it said. That compared with 4.6 percent in the three months to the end of July, but remained 0.5 percentage points higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, vacancies surged to almost 1.2 million last month, reflecting ongoing labor shortages.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
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