SOUTH KOREA
Bank holds interest rates
The Bank of Korea yesterday left interest rates untouched, while pushing up its inflation forecast for the year as it put policy normalization on hold until after a new leadership takes over. The central bank kept its seven-day repurchase rate at 1.25 percent in the last decision overseen by Governor Lee Ju-yeol. The bank sees inflation hitting 3.1 percent this year, sharply up from its earlier 2 percent view. It has raised borrowing costs three times since August last year to contain stronger-than-expected inflation and financial imbalances in the economy.
REAL ESTATE
US home ownership rises
US home ownership in 2020 rose at a historic rate, but a racial gap widened as more black households were priced out, a report released on Wednesday showed. Low interest rates helped fuel a 1.3 percent rise in home ownership in 2020, the biggest annual increase since the US Census Bureau began tracking the data in 1960, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors. Home ownership of black Americans was 43.4 percent in 2020, below 44.2 percent in 2010, although it rose 1.4 percent in 2020 from 2019.
ADVERTISING
WPP posts sales growth
WPP PLC, the world’s largest advertising group, said that client demand for campaigns to justify price rises and maintain their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic would enable it to grow above historic levels and return more cash to investors. The owner of the Ogilvy, Grey and GroupM agencies surpassed forecasts for its main net sales measurement and expanded its margins last year. The company’s like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs rose 12.1 percent last year, driven by demand in China, the UK and the US. For this year, it forecast growth of about 5 percent.
AIRLINES
Qantas reports A$20bn loss
Australian-based Qantas Airways Ltd yesterday reported a large six-month loss as it weathered global COVID-19-related travel shutdowns, with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 extending its woes. Qantas said it had lost more than A$20 billion (US$14.4 billion) in revenue since the start of the pandemic. The airline said it could see a gradual recovery ahead for flights in the second half of its financial year, which ends on June 30. Qantas said its underlying loss — a closely watched measure of its performance — grew to A$1.28 billion in the six months to Dec. 31 last year from a loss of A$1.01 billion a year earlier. Revenue grew 32 percent year-on-year to A$3.07 billion in the six months to Dec. 31.
AVIATION
Rolls-Royce CEO to quit
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC chief executive officer Warren East is to step down at the end of this year, and the company’s board is to conduct a search for a successor for East, a former technology executive who struggled to make the firm a more efficient operation even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. The announcement yesterday came as Rolls-Royce reported it turned a profit last year, spurred by cost cuts implemented by East and a restart of long-distance travel that had eaten into jet-engine revenue. Underlying profit reached ￡414 million (US$556.83 million) for the year, the London-based company said in a statement. Cash burn was better than previously forecast.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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