BANKING
Deutsche fined millions
The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) fined Deutsche Bank AG 8.66 million euros (US$9.77 million) over its handling of submissions for EURIBOR, a reference rate at the heart of a scandal that rocked the industry. The lender temporarily did not have effective systems and controls for contributions to the benchmark, BaFin said in a statement. While BaFin said Deutsche Bank has a right to appeal, the company said in a statement that it accepts the fine to create “legal certainty.” “It remains a top priority for us to identify and address potential weaknesses in our control processes,” Deutsche Bank said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Consumers face tough year
Households are heading into the “year of the squeeze” as surging energy bills and faster inflation eat into incomes, the Resolution Foundation think tank said. In a grim report days before the New Year holiday, it said real wages would effectively stagnate next year, rising just 0.1 percent. In three years, they would be ￡740 (US$993) a year lower than if the pre-COVID-19 wage trend had continued. Inflation has already breached 5 percent and might hit 6 percent early next year, the highest in three decades. In addition to energy prices, consumers would have to deal with tax increases in April.
AUTOMAKERS
Zeekr to make Waymo EVs
China’s Geely Holding Group Co (吉利控股集團) said its premium electric mobility brand, Zeekr, would make electric vehicles (EVs) for Waymo, Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit, to be deployed as fully autonomous ride-hailing vehicles across the US. The vehicles would be designed and developed at Zeekr’s facility in Sweden, and later integrated with Waymo’s self-driving technology, Geely said on Tuesday. Waymo said it would introduce the vehicles to US roads “in the years to come.” Waymo is the first and only fully driverless taxi service in the US. It has driven thousands of people since launching the service a year ago in Phoenix, Arizona.
E-COMMERCE
JD.com ups buyback target
JD.com Inc (京東) is boosting its share buyback plan by 50 percent, the latest in a slew of tech firms to repurchase stock after China’s regulatory crackdown over the past year sparked a sell-off. The country’s No. 2 online retailer would set aside US$3 billion for the buyback program, which would be extended until March 2024, it said in a filing yesterday. That is up from the US$2 billion it had targeted under the plan originally adopted in March last year. JD yesterday unveiled a five-year green loan facility of US$2 billion, its first such financing for new and existing green projects.
RIDE-HAILING
Didi plans HK listing
China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc (滴滴) plans to use a mechanism that would allow it to list shares in Hong Kong without raising capital or issuing new stock as it seeks to delist from New York, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The Hong Kong mechanism, known as “listing by introduction,” would allow owners of Didi’s US shares to transfer them to the territory’s bourse gradually, the people said. They declined to be identified as the plan was not yet public. Didi aims to file for the Hong Kong listing by the end of April and list by June, one of the people said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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