FRANCE
Bank upbeat on economy
Economic activity is forecast to continue rising this month, despite another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank of France said. Completed at the end of last week, the central bank’s monthly survey of 8,500 firms is the first indicator of how businesses in the eurozone’s second-largest economy are faring since the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 emerged. Based on their responses, the institution estimates economic activity was 0.5 percent above pre-crisis levels last month and would be 0.75 percent higher this month. That means output for the whole fourth quarter would also expand by almost 0.75 percent. The central bank, which is scheduled to announce fresh estimates on Dec. 20, in September predicted GDP would increase 6.3 percent this year.
COSMETICS
Nestle sells L’Oreal shares
Swiss food giant Nestle on Tuesday said it was reducing its stake in French cosmetics group L’Oreal, selling 8.9 billion euros (US$10 billion) of shares. Nestle said in a statement that 22.26 million of its L’Oreal shares were sold for 400 euros each, adding that it “remains fully supportive” of the French company’s “value creation strategy.” L’Oreal said in a separate statement that it would cancel the shares, which represent 4 percent of its capital. The French group’s shareholders would see their shareholdings increase due to the buyback, L’Oreal said, adding that the stake of L’Oreal’s Bettencourt Meyers family shareholders would rise from 33.3 percent to 34.7 percent.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Binance invests in HGX
Binance Asia Services Pte Ltd (幣安亞洲服務), the Singapore entity of Changpeng Zhao (趙長鵬), said it has invested in a regional private securities exchange called Hg Exchange (HGX) that gives it a post-money stake of 18 percent. Financial offerings in the traditional form and cryptoassets are converging, Binance Singapore CEO Richard Teng (鄧偉政) said in a statement yesterday. A post-money valuation is the firm’s worth that includes the outside investment. Binance’s stake in HGX gives the crypto firm access to a regulated market operator, as HGX has a license to trade shares in private companies, as well as tokenized assets.
AVIATION
HNA transfers unit to Fangda
China’s HNA Group Co (海航集團) said it has transferred management of its core aviation business, including Hainan Airlines Holding Co (海南航空), to strategic investor Liaoning Fangda Group Industrial Co (遼寧方大集團), effective yesterday. Fangda Group is a conglomerate involved in carbon, steel and pharmaceuticals, with listed units such as Fangda Carbon New Material Co (方大炭素新材料科技), Fangda Special Steel Technology Co (方大特鋼科技) and Northeast Pharmaceutical Group Co (東北製藥).
SOCIAL MEDIA
Meta restructures research
Meta Platforms Inc is restructuring its internal research department, bringing dozens of employees previously working on product specific teams or business units, such as WhatsApp or Instagram, into a central group to handle research for the entire firm. The restructuring would affect about 50 researchers, said Pratiti Raychoudhury, head of research at Meta who is to oversee the group. The changes would involve workers examining societal topics such as politics, well-being and health, climate, equity, and integrity-related topics like misinformation and account safety, a spokeswoman for Meta said.
‘BULLISH YEAR AHEAD’: The contract chipmaker set a growth target of up to 29 percent, as it expects to outperform its peers in the semiconductor industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is planning to boost this year’s capital expenditure budget by about 46 percent to exceed US$44 billion, citing strong customer demand for advanced technologies used in high-performance computing (HPC) and 5G-related applications, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said yesterday. The plan marks a record spending for TSMC after the chipmaker budgeted US$30 billion for capacity expansions at home and overseas fabs last year. TSMC is planning to allocate about 80 percent of this year’s capital spending for advanced chip capacity expansion including 2-nanometer, 3-nanometer, 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer technologies. The chipmaker reiterated that it is on
EMERGING TECH: The semiconductor equipment industry has had unprecedented growth, with increased spending in six of the past seven years, the CEO of SEMI said Global fab equipment spending at front-end facilities is expected to grow at an annual pace of 10 percent this year to a record of more than US$98 billion, with South Korea taking the lead, followed by Taiwan, SEMI said in a quarterly report yesterday. That means that world fab equipment spending is to grow for a third straight year, following a 39 percent jump last year and 17 percent growth in 2020, the global semiconductor trade association said in a statement. The industry previously had three consecutive years of growth from 2016 to 2018, more than 20 years after logging a three-year
Electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) this year expects its number of electric battery swapping stations to outstrip the number of gas stations in the nation following seven years of deployment, a sign that electric two-wheelers are gaining traction. As of the end of last year, Gogoro had built 2,215 GoStations nationwide, mostly in urban areas, up from 1,937 in 2020. The number of gas stations operated by CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) was 2,487. “By the end of this year, we are very confident that the number of battery swapping stations will surpass the number of gas stations
Siltronic AG cast doubt on a planned US$5.3 billion takeover by GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), saying the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action’s feedback so far was opaque and offered no clear resolution on how to win approval for the deal. During recent discussions, the companies did not receive any information as to whether and under which conditions a clearance for the takeover might be issued, the German company said in a regulatory filing on Friday following a news report on remedies the companies have offered. In the ministry’s view “in this case, a mitigation agreement is apparently not suitable
RSS