■BANKING
MUFG aims to boost capital
Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), plans to boost its capital by ¥1 trillion (US$11 billion) through public offerings of common stock, news reports said yesterday. The banking group plans to carry out the capital increase by the end of next month, the Nikkei business daily and other media said. If realized, this would be the largest capital boost by common stock in Japan, Nikkei said, adding that this was in response to global regulatory pushes for improved capital bases at banks.
■BANKING
HSBC to get new landlord
Banking giant HSBC said on Friday it was selling its London headquarters to the National Pension Service of South Korea (NPS) for £772.5 million (US$1.3 billion). “We actively manage our global real estate portfolio in accordance with the needs of our businesses and in the interests of our shareholders,” HSBC’s chief technology and services officer Ken Harvey said in a statement. “We are delighted the National Pension Service of Korea, one of Asia’s largest sovereign investors, will be our new landlord,” he added. HSBC will retain occupancy of the building under the leaseback deal.
■TELECOMS
Vivendi snaps up GVT stake
France’s Vivendi said on Friday it had acquired 37.9 percent of Brazilian telecom operator GVT and irrevocable options to buy another 19.6 percent, giving it control of the group. Vivendi “concluded an acquisition contract with Swarth Investments LLC, Swarth Investments Holdings LLC and Global Village Telecom (Holland) BV, the founders and controlling shareholders of GVT (Holding) SA,” the company said in a statement. The French firm said that “in conformity with Brazilian regulations, it will launch a public offer for 100 percent of GVT capital at a price of 56 reals following the purchase of a controlling interest in the business.” The offer values GVT at around 7.2 billion reais or 2.8 billion euros (US$4.2 billion), Vivendi said.
■ENERGY
Petrobras’ Q3 profits drop
Lower oil prices contributed to a US$1.48 billion cut in third-quarter profits for Petrobras, the Brazilian state-controlled energy company said late on Friday. Petrobras saw July-September profits slide to 7.3 billion reais from 9.8 billion reais for the same period last year, it said. It blamed lower oil prices in the wake of the global financial crisis, as well as an extraordinary late payment it had to make for its participation in an offshore Brazilian oil field.
■AVIATION
Dreamliner issue ‘resolved’
Boeing said on Friday its new 787 Dreamliner aircraft remains on track for its first test flight by the end of the year and that a problem noted in a news report had been “resolved.” The aerospace giant commented after the Wall Street Journal reported it discovered a new issue with the composite material in the plane’s wings as it reinforced an area of the fuselage of the aircraft. The Journal said metal bolts inside the wings of one of the six test airplanes were found to have slightly damaged the surrounding material. “The issue raised in the article has been resolved,” a Boeing spokesman told reporters. “We are progressing well toward first flight and are on track to fly by the end of the year.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
BIG INVESTMENT: Hon Hai is building the world’s largest assembly plant for servers based on Nvidia Corp’s state-of-the-art AI chips, Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus said The construction of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) massive artificial intelligence (AI) server plant near Guadalajara, Mexico, would be completed in a year despite the threat of new tariffs from US President Donald Trump, Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus said. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is investing about US$900 million in what would become the world’s largest assembly plant for servers based on Nvidia Corp’s state-of-the-art GB200 AI chips, Lemus said. The project consists of two phases: the expansion of an existing Hon Hai facility in the municipality of El Salto, and the construction of a
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