MEDIA
News Corp beats forecasts
News Corp on Wednesday reported a strong gain in quarterly profits, boosted by Hollywood entertainment and cable television operations in the US, Asia and Latin America. The conglomerate controlled by magnate Rupert Murdoch said profits in the fiscal third quarter ended March 31 leapt 47 percent to US$937 million, beating most analyst forecasts, as revenues rose 2 percent to US$8.4 billion. The company said lower revenue growth was due to advertising declines at the Australian and British newspapers, as well as the closing of the News of the World.
MINING
Outlook good: Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto chairman Jan du Plessis yesterday said he was more confident about the global outlook than he was six months ago, with demand for commodities expected to double over the next 20 years. The global miner’s chief said the world continued to face volatility driven by the European crisis, but the company was optimistic about promising signs of recovery in the US. Du Plessis told the company’s annual general meeting in Brisbane that despite China growing more slowly than in recent years, “the rate of growth is still very favorable in comparison to global economic growth.”
STEEL
ArcelorMittal profit plunges
ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said first-quarter net profit plunged to US$11 million from US$1.069 billion for the same period a year ago. However, the results were an improvement over the fourth quarter last year, when the company posted a US$1 billion loss. In a statement, ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal said demand in North American continued to grow, driven in part by the automotive sector and white and yellow good sectors. White goods are heavy consumer durables such as air conditioners, refrigerators and stoves. Yellow goods are materials for construction and earth-moving equipment.
INSURANCE
Zurich Financial profit up
Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Group yesterday said net profit in the first quarter surged 78 percent to a better-than-forecast US$1.1 billion. The group also said in a statement that its business volume increased 10 percent to US$19.6 billion. The combined ratio, used by insurance companies to indicate how well they are performing in daily operations, improved to 94.6 percent from 103.6 year on year. A ratio below 100 means the company is receiving more money in premiums than paying out in claims. The net profit figure beat market expectations, with analysts surveyed by the AWP financial agency having predicted it would stand at US$1 billion.
AIRLINES
SIA eyeing India, China
Singapore Airlines (SIA) yesterday said it was exploring partnerships in India and China as it looks to guard against increased competition and global economic uncertainty. “There is always a constant look at how we can be nimble in response to changes in the market,” chief executive Goh Choon Phong told reporters a day after the group announced sharply lower profits for the fiscal year to March. SIA’s profit slumped 69 percent year on year to S$336 million (US$268.8 million). However, on a sequential basis, that represented an improvement from a net loss of S$38.2 million in the fourth quarter, only the third quarterly loss in its history.
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list
SPECULATION: The central bank cut the loan-to-value ratio for mortgages on second homes by 10 percent and denied grace periods to prevent a real-estate bubble The central bank’s board members in September agreed to tighten lending terms to induce a soft landing in the housing market, although some raised doubts that they would achieve the intended effect, the meeting’s minutes released yesterday showed. The central bank on Sept. 18 introduced harsher loan restrictions for mortgages across Taiwan in the hope of curbing housing speculation and hoarding that could create a bubble and threaten the financial system’s stability. Toward the aim, it cut the loan-to-value ratio by 10 percent for second and subsequent home mortgages and denied grace periods for first mortgages if applicants already owned other residential
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