BANIKING
ADB shares climate program
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a new program aimed at financing efforts to counter climate change, stepping up its attempt to back one of its main focuses in the region. The Innovative Finance Facility for Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP) could create up to US$15 billion in new loans, through a goal of US$3 billion in guarantees, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa told a news conference in Incheon, South Korea. “The region needs trillions in investment to combat climate change,” Asakawa said. “To help reach that level, we need to maximize our capital in new ways — the IF-CAP will multiply ADB’s lending capacity through leverage,” making it possible to take climate action across sectors and regions, he said.Partner countries including the US and Japan would guarantee a portfolio of ADB’s sovereign loans, helping shoulder some of the losses in case of a credit event in one of its borrowers, the bank said.
ENERGY
BP profits after record loss
British energy giant BP PLC yesterday posted net profit of US$8.2 billion for the first quarter, compared with a record loss a year earlier as it ended operations in Russia. In the first three months of this year, BP recorded its biggest quarterly loss after tax, at US$20.4 billion, as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine caused its exit from Russian business. A year ago, BP had booked a pre-tax charge of $25.5 billion after abandoning its 19.75 percent stake in energy group Rosneft PJSC, ending more than three decades of investment in Russia. BP CEO Bernard Looney called this year’s first-quarter performance “strong” as the group focuses “on safe and reliable operations.” The company added that it would return US$1.75 billion to shareholders.
AVIATION
JAL recovers from pandemic
Japan Airlines Co (JAL) yesterday logged an annual net profit for the first time in three years, buoyed by soaring domestic and international demand for travel after COVID-19 restrictions were eased. The carrier, Japan’s second-largest by market share, said that net profit for the year to March was ￥34.4 billion (US$250.4 million) — a turnaround from a net loss of ￥177 billion in the previous financial year. “Air passenger demand recovered steadily as the shift toward balancing the COVID-19 pandemic’s prevention and socioeconomic activities gained momentum,” a company statement said. Japan Airlines said that its return to profitability was in part because of “comprehensive cost-cutting efforts and maximizing sales in the cargo business domain.” Last week, rival ANA Holdings Inc reported profitability for the first time in three years, logging a full-year net profit of ￥89 billion.
BANKING
Morgan Stanley to cut staff
Morgan Stanley is planning to cut more jobs after reporting a decline in profit during the first three months of the year, US media reported on Monday. The bank aims to trim its headcount by nearly 4 percent this quarter after ending March with more than 82,000 employees, the reports said. The US investment and financial services giant said in a recent earnings report that its profit dropped 20 percent in the first three months of this year amid a slowdown in mergers and acquisition advising. The global financial institution at the end of last year trimmed about 2 percent of its staff or about 1,600 positions, CNBC reported at the time. Morgan Stanley’s next round of cuts is expected to involve about 3,000 jobs.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
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