BANKING
Rakuten eyes ￥116.6bn IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) by Rakuten Bank Ltd is set to fetch the company and its parent as much as ￥116.6 billion (US$877.6 million), putting it on track to be Japan’s biggest listing in more than four years. The banking unit of Rakuten Group Inc yesterday set an indicative band of ￥1,630 to ￥1,960 per share for its Tokyo IPO. The stock is to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 21, the group said in a statement. Almost 60 million shares are being offered in the IPO, with 16 percent of them being sold by the lender and 84 percent by holder Rakuten Group.
APPAREL
Nike sales beat forecasts
Nike Inc reported quarterly sales that beat Wall Street’s expectations as the sportswear brand worked down its excess inventory, but profitability missed estimates amid markdowns, and high freight and material costs. Global revenue rose 14 percent to US$12.4 billion in the quarter ended on Feb. 28. That was above analysts’ average estimate of US$11.5 billion. Gross margin was 43.3 percent, below the 43.7 percent estimate. Inventories were up 16 percent from a year earlier after the company reported a 43 percent jump the previous quarter. Even so, the company cited “higher markdowns to liquidate inventory” as hurting gross margin, as well as higher costs for materials and freight. Nike expects pressures on profitability to ease in the next fiscal year, which begins in June.
FOOD
Nestle foods fail health test
Nestle SA said that one-third of its sales missed an independent definition of healthy as it applied a nutritional rating test across its portfolio. The finding showed that Nestle has room to improve as it aims to be the top health and wellness food company. Nestle on Tuesday said that according to the Health Star Rating system, 30 percent of the Swiss company’s portfolio is considered healthy and 35 percent unhealthy. The remainder came from pet food, infant formula and medical nutrition products, which were not included as they are designed to meet specific goals such as helping kidney function.
INTERNET
Tencent revenue up after slip
Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) revenue inched up after two quarters of contractions, fueling hopes that Beijing would again allow the world’s largest gaming arena to thrive. Revenue rose to 144.95 billion yuan (US$21.1 billion) for the three months ended December last year, compared with the 144.5 billion yuan average forecast. Net income was 106.3 billion yuan, versus 27.6 billion yuan projected. China’s gaming and social media leader gained more than US$160 billion of market value since hitting a trough in October last year, helped by Beijing’s resumption of approvals for blockbuster games after a months-long halt.
BEVERAGES
Wine exports to UAE surge
Champagne exports to Gulf countries from France jumped last year as Russian tourists flocked to the region after the war in Ukraine curbed their access to Western nations. French producers shipped nearly 1.9 million bottles of the bubbly drink to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year, a jump of 75 percent, while exports to Turkey surged 120 percent, data released this month by the Comite Champagne showed. Separate numbers from the Trade Data Monitor showed that Champagne exports from Turkey to Russia jumped 182 percent last year.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
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