INTERNET
Grab expects slower sales
Grab Holdings Ltd expects sharply slower revenue growth next year, as the Southeast Asian Internet giant adjusts to a market downturn and speeds up efforts to reverse years of losses. The ride-sharing and delivery provider yesterday forecast a revenue increase of 45 to 55 percent. The company backed by Softbank Group Corp also said it anticipates breaking even in the second half of 2024 on a conditional basis, and excluding one-time items. “Looking ahead, we’re firing on all cylinders to improve our profitability trajectory,” CEO Anthony Tan (陳炳耀) said in Singapore. “Grab is trying to achieve this by growing our top line in a sustainable manner.”
PHARMACEUTICALS
Biogen settles bribery suit
US pharmaceutical company Biogen Inc has reached a US$900 million settlement with a whistle-blower who accused the firm of having paid bribes to doctors to encourage them to prescribe its drugs against multiple sclerosis. The whistle-blower behind the report, Michael Bawduniak, is to receive about US$250 million directly, a statement released on Monday by the US Department of Justice said. The rest will essentially go to the federal government, and a smaller part — US$56 million — to 15 US states that had joined the lawsuit, to which the agreement puts an end. Biogen was accused of paying kickbacks to doctors to get them to prescribe its drug Avonex, whose sales were declining, and its new treatment, called Tysabri.
SOUTH AFRICA
Work days lost up 30-fold
Work days lost due to strike action rose more than 30-fold in the six months through June compared with the same period a year earlier, driving up wage settlements between labor unions and companies. Africa’s most industrialized economy lost 1.6 million work days due to industrial action in the first half of this year, up from 45,000 in the prior year, data published yesterday in the South African Reserve Bank’s Quarterly Bulletin showed. Dissatisfaction over pay was the biggest cause of industrial action in the second quarter, accounting for 99 percent of work days lost and 85 percent of strikes, the central bank said.
ARGENTINA
Economy stalls in July
The economy plateaued in July as a historic inflation spike caused by political volatility paralyzed some sector, government data published on Monday showed. Economic activity was flat in July compared with a month earlier, better than economists’ expectations of a 0.8 percent decline. On an annual basis, the economy grew 5.6 percent. Manufacturing and construction posted monthly declines while tourism and mining registered gains in July. Monthly inflation in July accelerated to a 20-year high as a political crisis resulted in three economy ministers in about four weeks.
TRADE
WTO expects lower growth
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday said that she expects global trade forecasts would be revised lower from the current 3 percent for this year, citing the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and related food and energy crises. “We are in the middle of revising our forecasts now, but it’s not looking very promising. All the indicators are pointing to downside numbers,” Okonjo-Iweala said. The WTO already revised down its forecast for global trade growth this year to 3 percent from 4.7 percent in April. It projected 3.4 percent growth for next year.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
RSS