AUTOMAKERS
Renault dumping AvtoVAZ
Renault SA plans to sell its majority stake in automaker AvtoVAZ to a Russian science institute, the French company said yesterday, adding that the deal includes a six-year option to buy back the stake. Renault said that its holding of nearly 67.69 percent in AvtoVAZ would be sold to the Russian central research and development automobile and engine institute NAMI. Its 100 percent shares in Renault Russia are to go to the city of Moscow. “Today, we have taken a difficult but necessary decision, and we are making a responsible choice towards our 45,000 employees in Russia,” Renault chief executive officer Luca de Meo said. The move preserves the group’s ability to later return to the country in a different context, he added.
CEMENT MAKERS
Holcim to sell India interests
Holcim Ltd has agreed to sell its Indian operations to local billionaire Gautam Adani, another step in chief executive officer Jan Jenisch’s pivot away from traditional cement. The Swiss company is to sell its 63 percent stake in Mumbai-listed Ambuja Cements Ltd to Adani Group, it said in a statement on Sunday. Adani said that it plans to spend about US$10.5 billion on the stake purchases and open offer consideration for Ambuja and related entities. As part of the deal, Adani is to inherit Ambuja’s controlling stake in another publicly traded cement producer, ACC Ltd, and buy Holcim’s direct 4.5 percent holding in the unit. Holcim expects to receive 6.4 billion Swiss francs (US$6.37 billion) of cash proceeds from the sale, the statement said. “We have quite a list of businesses we would like to acquire, so I think we can put this money here very well to use,” Jenisch said in an interview on Sunday. “At the moment, we’re working on more than 10 deals.”
ENERGY
Aramco profits spike 82%
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco) on Sunday posted an 82 percent jump in first-quarter profits, buoyed by a global surge in oil prices that has made it the world’s most valuable company. The company’s net income of US$39.5 billion was up from US$21.7 billion from the same period last year, it said in a news release. Its net income for the first quarter was a record for the company since its initial public offering in 2019. Also on Sunday, Aramco announced that it was issuing 20 billion bonus shares to shareholders — one share for every 10 shares already owned. A dividend of US$18.8 billion would be paid in the second quarter, the company said. Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s “crown jewel” and primary source of revenue.
UNITED STATES
Blankfein warns of recession
Goldman Sachs Group Inc senior chairman Lloyd Blankfein urged companies and consumers to prepare for a recession, saying that it is a “very, very high risk.” “If I were running a big company, I would be very prepared for it,” Blankfein said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “If I was a consumer, I’d be prepared for it.” A recession is “not baked in the cake” and there is a “narrow path” to avoid it, he said. The Federal Reserve has “very powerful tools” to tamp down inflation and has been “responding well,” he said. Goldman’s economic team now expects the US’ GDP to expand 2.4 percent this year, down from 2.6 percent. It reduced its estimate for next year to 1.6 percent from 2.2 percent.
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