13/02/2025

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | FEB 13, 2025

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Vietnam to raise 2025 GDP growth target to 8%

Gillette India’s profit rises on strong grooming product demand MUMBAI: Gillette India posted a higher second-quarter profit, driven by strong demand for its grooming products. Gillette India, known for its razors and shaving creams, posted a profit of 1.26 billion rupees (RM64 million) for the quarter ended Dec 31, compared with 1.04 billion rupees a year earlier. The company continues to see strong demand for its new products and designs, including its multi-blade systems and gel shaving creams, while sustained demand for its higher-priced products has further boosted its revenue. Rural consumer demand in India has gathered pace over the last few quarters, while urban demand has slowed down. Revenue from the core grooming segment, which produces razors and accounts for about 80% to Gillette India’s total revenue, increased 11% to 5.71 billion rupees during the reported quarter. Sales from its smaller segment, oral care, dropped more than 8%. The company has also been ramping up its advertising spend in an effort to compete with private labels offering cheaper alternatives. Its advertising and promotion expenses rose nearly 30%, widening its total quarterly expenses by 4%. Shares of Gillette India were down 3.27% yesterday amid a broadly weaker market. – Reuters

Imports and exports are both expected to grow 12% this year, Dung said in Parliament, adding that the trade surplus is estimated at US$30 billion (RM134 billion). Dung said Vietnam would face a mixture of opportunities and challenges this year, “but the challenges are more prominent, threatening to leave significant impacts on the economy”. ANZ Research said in a note on Wednesday the mix of US tariffs, weak demand in China and a strong American economy was changing the export environment for Asian economies. Vietnam’s trade surplus with the United States hit a record high of more than US$123 billion last year, US data showed. “Vietnam stands out as the most exposed to higher across-the-board American tariffs and being a priority target if the United States focuses on economies among the top

contributors of the US trade deficit,” ANZ Research said. Vietnam grew 7.09% last year, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia. Dung said industrial manufacturing and foreign investment would lead this year’s economic growth, noting that the industrial production and construction sector is expected to grow 9.5%. Foreign investment inflows are expected to be US$28 billion, while domestic retail sales are expected to rise 12%, he said. “We will also prioritise keeping inflation under control and ensuring macro stability.” He said inflation is expected to be 4.5%-5% this year. The revised GDP growth target is subject to approval from the Parliament, which began a week-long meeting yesterday. – Reuters Nissan and Renault declined to comment on Liu’s remarks. Nissan shares ended down around 6%, while Foxconn shares closed 1.1% lower. Nissan and Honda are both due to release their quarterly financial results today. While Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, is best known for its role as an Apple supplier, it also has ambitions in the electric vehicle sector as it seeks to diversify its business. Liu said Foxconn would not get into being an auto “brand” and would only provide commissioned design and manufacturing services. – Reuters

o Minister says country faces mixture of opportunities and challenges HANOI: Vietnam will officially revise up its gross domestic product growth target for 2025 to at least 8% from 6.5%-7%, driven by stronger industrial manufacturing, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said yesterday. The new target comes as Vietnam, an export-reliant economy, is confronting the risks from intensifying global trade disputes, including new duties on its steel exports to the United States.

SoftBank books surprise loss of ¥369 billion in Q3 TOKYO: Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group booked a surprising net loss of ¥369.2 billion (RM10.7 billion) in the October-December quarter as valuations at its Vision Fund investment arm fell. In particular, SoftBank was syndicated out to other investors. SoftBank has also Foxconn says its aim is cooperation with Nissan, not acquisition TAIPEI: The chairman of Taiwan’s Foxconn said yesterday that the company’s aim is cooperation with Nissan, not acquisition, as the Japanese automaker’s future hangs in the balance after stepping back from merger talks with Honda. Struggling Nissan is again at crossroads after sources said last week that negotiations with bigger rival Honda to create the world’s No. 4 automaker had been complicated by growing differences. The deal would have been the latest change in a car industry facing a huge threat from China’s BYD and other electric vehicle entrants. Nissan is open to working with new partners such as Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and Apple’s main iPhone maker, sources said last week. Speaking to reporters at Foxconn’s corporate headquarters in New Taipei, outside the capital Taipei, its chairman Young Liu said his company was not looking to acquire Nissan, but it would consider taking a stake if that was needed for cooperation. “Purchasing its shares is not our aim; our aim is cooperation,” he added, in Foxconn’s first public comments about its talks with Nissan. Foxconn is also talking about cooperation with France’s Renault given that company’s stake in Nissan, Liu said. Renault owns 36% of Nissan, including 18.7% in a French trust.

committed to investing US$15 billion in Stargate – a venture with OpenAI and Oracle that will build AI data centre capacity in the United States and which has been backed by US President Donald Trump. The announcements mark a return to the aggressive SoftBank of old which rocked the technology investment world by taking big bets on startups through its Vision Funds. The third-quarter result compares to an LSEG consensus estimate of a net profit of ¥234 billion drawn from four analysts and a profit of ¥950 billion in the same period a year earlier. The Vision Fund unit posted an investment loss of ¥352.7 billion, breaking a run of two consecutive quarters in the black. Vision Fund 1 has had a gross gain of US$21.6 billion since its inception in 2017 while Vision Fund 2, which covers a broad suite of earlier-stage startups, has logged a US$22.2 billion loss since 2019. – Reuters

hit by unrealised valuation losses for Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Global, South Korean e-commerce platform Coupang and AutoStore Holdings. The result will further raise questions about how SoftBank will fund one of its most ambitious undertakings – a hefty investment in OpenAI. Cash and cash equivalents dropped to ¥4.7 trillion (RM137 billion) as of end-December from ¥6.2 trillion in March which was the end of the previous financial year. Sources said in January that SoftBank was in talks to invest up to US$25 billion (RM112 billion) in the ChatGPT creator. Recent media reports have said that figure has grown to US$40 billion though some of that amount would later be

A man walking past a sign of SoftBank and Y!Mobile outside a telecommunications shop in Tokyo. – AFPPIC