EQUITIES
CICC rebuked over listing
China’s securities regulator rebuked China International Capital Corp (CICC, 中國國際金融), saying that the country’s top investment bank has failed in due diligence on Lenovo Group Ltd’s (聯想) recent application for a US$1.6 billion stock listing in Shanghai, China. CICC, the sponsor for the listing, was found to mainly rely on the explanatory documents provided by the issuer to draw conclusive opinions on the firm, a notice issued on Wednesday by the China Securities Regulatory Commission said. The commission had also summoned five bankers involved in the listing for a review on Thursday last week, it said.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Bitcoin’s retreat continues
Bitcoin is continuing its retreat and testing a key technical level that over the past two years has tended to act as a floor for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. The digital asset fell as much as 2.7 percent in Asia yesterday and was trading at about US$46,700 as of 2:15pm in Singapore. It is down 18 percent this month amid a broader retreat in the crypto sector. Bitcoin’s drop has taken the token to its 55-week moving average, a level it effectively held after a flash crash and during the embers of a crypto rout in the middle of this year.
SOUTH KOREA
Output up most since 2020
Factory production last month jumped the most since the middle of last year, suggesting that supply disruptions that hurt manufacturing in key industries were easing before a surge in global COVID-19 cases triggered by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Industrial production rose 5.1 percent last month from the previous month, the statistics office said yesterday, ending three months of declines and beating economists’ estimate for a 2.5 percent increase. Vehicle production gained 11.3 percent as a supply shortage of chips eased, while semiconductor manufacturing increased 4.5 percent.
CASINOS
Nevada gambling sets record
Nevada casinos set a record last month, reporting a ninth straight month of US$1 billion or more in house winnings, gambling regulators said on Wednesday, providing another sign that business in the US’ tourist-dependent gambling mecca has returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. The US$1.32 billion in casino winnings reported statewide last month was up from US$1.22 billion in October and almost reached the record US$1.36 billion figure set in July last year, the Nevada Gaming Control Board reported. The streak beat the previous record of eight consecutive months set before the 2008 recession, from October 2006 to May 2007, board senior analyst Michael Lawton said.
EGYPT
Citroen pulls ad after outcry
French vehicle manufacturer Citroen yesterday withdrew an advertisement featuring Egyptian singer Amr Diab after it sparked widespread accusations of promoting the harassment of women. In the advertisement posted on social media early this month, the 60-year-old pop star uses a camera installed in a vehicle’s rearview mirror to secretly take a picture of a woman crossing the street. The woman clearly does not give her consent to the photograph, but Diab is shown smiling at the image as it pops up on his mobile phone. He then invites the woman to join him in the vehicle. The advert was slammed on social media in a country where about 90 percent of women aged 18 to 39 reported having been harassed in 2019, a survey by the Arab Barometer research network showed.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six