SRI LANKA
Rupee falls sharply
The rupee yesterday fell sharply against the US dollar after the central bank ordered a 15 percent depreciation to stave off a looming economic collapse sparked by a shortage of foreign currency. The country’s worst economic crisis since independence has led to fuel and electricity rationing across the nation of 22 million, crippling public transport, and causing long lines for food and medicine. Traders said the rupee sank 11.53 percent against the US dollar, the country’s main foreign trading currency, as authorities struggled to raise cash to finance desperately-needed oil imports.
CHEMICALS
Bayer to sell pest control unit
Chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer AG yesterday said it has agreed to sell its pest control unit to British private equity firm Cinven for US$2.6 billion. Bayer last year announced its intention to offload its US-based unit, Environmental Science Professional. “This divestment represents a very attractive purchase price and allows us to focus on our core agricultural business,” said Rodrigo Santos, head of Bayer’s Crop Science division. Environmental Science Professional offers solutions to control pests, diseases and weeds in nonagricultural areas, including professional pest management, forestry and gardens.
BREWERIES
Carlsberg halts guidance
Carlsberg A/S, the biggest brewer in Russia, suspended its financial guidance for this year and warned that it might have to write down its assets in the country. The Danish company on Wednesday said it is no longer possible to provide a financial forecast because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The brewery said it is also reviewing a full range of strategic options for its Russian business, which is called Baltika Breweries. Meanwhile, Dutch rival Heineken NV said it would stop the production and sale of its own-brand beer in Russia, joining a wave of companies to exit the country in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
AUTOMAKERS
Ukraine war fallout cautioned
Volkswagen AG’s chief executive officer has warned that a prolonged war in Ukraine risks being “very much worse” for the European economy than the COVID-19 pandemic, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The interruption to global supply chains “could lead to huge price increases, scarcity of energy and inflation,” Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess told the newspaper. The German automaker’s head also said Europe faces a huge threat of higher inflation from prolonged conflict in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Volkswagen halted its business in Russia, stopped vehicle exports to the country, and suspended production at its Russian factories in Kaluga and Nizhny Novgorod.
ELECTRONICS
Toshiba split plan dealt blow
Toshiba Corp’s proposal to split into two companies has been dealt a blow after a prominent shareholder advisory firm and its largest stockholder came out against the plan. Institutional Shareholder Services Inc urged investors in the Japanese conglomerate to reject the proposal, it said in a report on Wednesday. Activist investor Effissimo Capital Management Pte, which holds a 10 percent stake in Toshiba, yesterday also spoke out against the plan, saying that such a split would be irreversible and could be detrimental in the longer term. The proposal is slated to go to a shareholders’ vote on March 24.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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