■ELECTRONICS
Toshiba to raise US$5bn
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp plans to raise approximately ¥500 billion (US$5 billion) in a bid to reverse its worsening financial situation, the Nikkei Shimbun and Kyodo News reported yesterday. Toshiba is considering procuring ¥300 billion in capital through a public stock offering, they said, quoting industry sources. The company will also ask banks and other financial institutions to buy ¥200 billion in subordinated bonds by September, the sources were quoted as saying. The new capital will be used to improve its semiconductor and nuclear power operations as the company is expected to incur huge losses amid the global economic slump, they said.
■INVESTMENT
VC investments dip 61%
US venture capital (VC) investments sank 61 percent in the first quarter, dropping to the lowest level in 12 years as financiers became even warier about sinking funds into startups during a deepening recession. In yet-another indicator that a pullback that began last summer is not abating, VC investments totaled US$3 billion during the first three months of this year, said a report released yesterday by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Thomson Reuters. In the year-ago quarter, investments totaled US$7.74 billion.
■INVESTMENT
China SWF eyes Europe
China’s US$200 billion sovereign wealth fund plans to include Europe in its targets for investment this year, after a year in which it avoided the continent because of perceived trade protectionism. “Europe has started to welcome investments” without attaching conditions, China Investment Corp’s (CIC, 中國投資公司) chairman Lou Jiwei (樓繼偉) said yesterday at the Boao Forum in Hainan Province. “During the world financial crisis, sovereign wealth funds have become more appealing” and less frightening, he said. Beijing-based CIC’s investments have included stakes in Blackstone Group LP and Morgan Stanley.
■TRADE
Vietnam to cut tariffs
Vietnam will reduce some tariffs on goods and services to push up demand in the face of an economic slowdown, according to a decision signed by the prime minister. Value-added tax (VAT) on garment and textile products, cement and motorbikes will be reduced by 50 percent between May 1 and Dec. 31, said the ruling signed on Thursday. Registration fees for cars with fewer than 10 seats will also be reduced by half, while garment and footwear enterprises will benefit from a 30 percent cut in corporate income tax for the fourth quarter of last year, it said.
■BANKING
Two US banks shuttered
Banks in Missouri and Nevada were seized by US regulators on Friday, bringing this year’s tally to 25 and equaling the number of banks shuttered in all of last year, as a recession drives up unemployment and home foreclosures. American Sterling Bank of Sugar Creek, Missouri, was shut by the Office of Thrift Supervision and Great Basin Bank of Nevada in Elko was closed by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) was named receiver of the banks with combined assets of US$451.9 million and deposits of US$393.3 million, the FDIC said in e-mailed statements. Regulators closed 25 banks last year, the most since 1993.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).