Japan
Trade deficit narrows
The nation’s trade deficit narrowed sharply last month from the previous month’s record shortfall, as the impact from the Lunar New Year in China reversed, slowing imports and encouraging exports. The trade gap shrank to ￥897.7 billion (US$6.7 billion) from ￥3.5 trillion in January, the finance ministry reported yesterday. Imports rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier, while exports climbed 6.5 percent as vehicles pushed up gains. The trade report showed exports to the US were up 14.9 percent from the previous year, while those to Europe gained 18.6 percent, both gaining pace from the previous month. Shipments to China fell 10.9 percent, slowing from the previous month’s 17.1 percent decline.
Sri Lanka
Economy shrinks 7.8%
The nation’s crisis-hit economy shrank a record 7.8 percent last year as long blackouts and critical fuel shortages put a choke hold on local commerce, official data showed yesterday. Last year’s contraction — the biggest in the country’s 75 years of independence — compared with 3.5 percent growth in 2021 and a 4.6 percent contraction in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The data showed some improvement in the fiscal position, with inflation moderating to about 50 percent last month, down from a record high of 69.8 percent in September last year.
Retail
Couche-Tard bids in Europe
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc agreed to buy 2,193 gasoline stations in Europe from TotalEnergies SE for 3.1 billion euros (US$3.3 billion). The Canadian convenience-store operator yesterday said that it would buy all of the French oil company’s retail assets in Germany and the Netherlands as well as a 60 percent stake in businesses in Belgium and the Netherlands. Couche-Tard would finance the acquisition with cash, existing credit facilities and a new term loan. The agreement comes about two years after a bid by Couche-Tard to buy French retailer Carrefour SA failed amid government opposition.
Conglomerates
CK Hutchison profit up 10%
CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd’s (長和集團) profit rose about 10 percent last year, topping analyst estimates, as a diversified global portfolio helped the conglomerate founded by billionaire Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠) weather headwinds including China’s COVID-19 lockdowns, a downturn in Europe and currency fluctuations. The company, led by his eldest son Victor Li (李澤鉅), reported net income of HK$36.68 billion (US$4.67 billion) for last year, with total revenue climbing 2.7 percent to HK$457 billion. The company announced a full-year dividend of HK$2.9 per share, a 10 percent increase from the year before.
Equities
A1 Ansari IPO starts strong
The Dubai initial public offering (IPO) of remittances and money exchange firm Al Ansari Financial Services received orders for all shares offered within one hour of books opening, marking a strong start for the emirate’s first listing of the year. The owners of Al Ansari are seeking to raise as much as US$210 million in the IPO, with the price range set at 1 dirham to 1.03 dirham per share, a company statement said yesterday. Al Ansari Holding LLC is selling 750 million shares in the offering, or a 10 percent stake. Al Ansari is the first IPO in Dubai this year, as well as one of the first family-owned businesses in the United Arab Emirates to go public.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
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