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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
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