■ELECTRONICS
Sanyo forecasts loss
Japan’s Sanyo Electric Co yesterday forecast a net loss of ¥30 billion (US$330 million) for the current financial year to March, partly due to the cost of recalling faulty washing machines. Sanyo — which is being bought by its bigger rival Panasonic Corp — had previously estimated that it would just break even with zero net profit, after a loss of ¥93.2 billion the previous year. The group left unchanged its projections for annual revenue of ¥1.66 trillion and an operating loss of ¥25 billion.
■ELECTRONICS
Fujitsu president resigns
Japanese electronics maker Fujitsu Ltd said yesterday that its president Kuniaki Nozoe, 62, had resigned due to illness after about one year in the job. Fujitsu chairman Michiyoshi Mazuka, 65, will take on the additional role while Nozoe will become an adviser to the group, it said in a statement. The company lost more than US$1 billion in the year to March as it overhauled its operations in response to the global economic crisis.
■FINANCE
HSBC chief heads to London
HSBC on Friday said that its chief executive Michael Geoghegan will move to Hong Kong from London so that he is closer to the banking group’s “largest and most important region” of operation. HSBC, founded in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865, said it would remain headquartered in London. “There is absolutely no question of HSBC pulling away from London. We will operate from two equally strategically important centers for the company,” chairman Stephen Green said in a statement.
■CONSUMER PRODUCTS
Unilever to buy Sara Lee unit
Consumer products maker Unilever NV says it has agreed to buy the personal care products businesses of Sara Lee Corp for 1.28 billion euros (US$1.88 billion). Unilever makes Dove soaps and Axe deodorants, while the Sara Lee businesses to be acquired are known for the Sanex, Radox and Duschdas brands, Unilever said. The Anglo-Dutch company says the businesses are complementary and have room to grow in developing markets. Unilever said in a statement yesterday the deal must be approved by regulators.
■SINGAPORE
Industrial output rises
Singapore’s industrial output rose 12.3 percent year-on-year last month, its second straight monthly expansion amid signs the city-state was recovering from a recession, government data showed yesterday. The biomedical industry was the main driver for the surge in industrial output with an expansion of 97.8 percent from a year ago, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said. The strong showing from the biomedical sector cushioned declines in other industries, including electronics, which dropped 6.4 percent year-on-year last month, it said.
■INTERNET
Google sorry for outage
Google apologized on Thursday for a Gmail outage which left some users of the free Web-based email service cut off for the second time in a month. The Internet giant announced at 10:29am that an unspecified problem was preventing a “small subset of users” from accessing their Gmail accounts. About an hour later, the Internet giant said service had been restored for some users and at 12:58pm it said the problem had been resolved. The disruption came just more than three weeks after an outage that left millions of users without Gmail for more than an hour and a half.
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
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