Yu Liang said that 2022 is the year when Vanke broke the ship and fought a war. European publishers have accused Google of owning more than 90 percent of the ad tech chain. The materials of the flash memory factory jointly operated by Jiaoxia and Xishu are contaminated. Tesla will set up a design center in Beijing. SpaceX40 satellites were declared "obsolete" due to incorrect orbital deployment. Volvo Cars, AstraZeneca, Vestas and Under Armour report results.
Yu Liang, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vanke Group, mentioned in his concluding speech at Vanke's 2022 annual meeting that 2022 is a year in which the Group breaks through the boat and fights a war, and it is also the beginning of a new era. Yu Liang mentioned that the first feature of the external environment is that the industry has entered the stage of shrinking the balance sheet and clearing out, and it is necessary to have no illusions anymore, and it must be cleared quickly and resolutely. In the face of the industry to the black iron era, everyone's income this year is definitely a sharp decline. In the face of an industry that is already about 10% of the profits, Vanke wants to re-engineer the process, and the way of extravagance and subcontracting in the past must not be feasible. It is necessary to save money and economy, reduce waste, and create a wartime atmosphere of frugality and food.
The European Publishers Council (EPC) complained to the European Commission about Google's digital advertising business. That could prompt the European Union to launch a further investigation into Google's advertising business. About 16 percent of Google's revenue comes from its display advertising business, while other media companies use Google's technology to sell ads on websites and apps. The European Publishers Council accused Google of imposing ad technology controls on news publishers, with a market share of up to 90 to 100 percent at all stages of the ad tech chain. Prior to this, the European Union had fined Google more than 8 billion euros in three antitrust cases.
Since late January, two factories in Japan that produce flash memory chips, run by Japan's Kioxia Holdings in partnership with Western Digital in the United States, have suffered production operations due to material contamination issues that could affect already struggling semiconductor supply chains. The NAND flash memory chips produced by the two factories are used in many products, including smartphones, computers and servers. The two companies did not say what kind of pollution caused it. The problem affects a class of more advanced 3D flash memory products, Sayucher said.
Japan's ROHM corporation (ROHM) will begin mass production of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, which are considered a new generation of semiconductors, by the spring of 2022. This is a "power semiconductor" that can improve the efficiency of power supply and control, and it is said that compared with the previous silicon semiconductor, the new product can reduce the loss when switching current by 60%. ROHM will build production facilities at its plant in Hamamatsu City, Japan, and first supply 5G base stations.
According to documents disclosed on the SEC's website on Thursday, Tencent Holdings held 78.85 million Class A shares in Didi Chuxing as of December 31 last year, an increase of nearly 1.8 million shares from 77.07 million shares at the time of Didi Chuxing's IPO at the end of June last year. Tencent Holdings' shareholding in Didi Chuxing accounted for 7.4% of Didi Chuxing's 1.065 billion outstanding shares as of September 30 last year. Didi Chuxing landed on the New York Stock Exchange at the end of June last year, and before the IPO, Tencent Holdings held 6.8% of its shares in the total share capital, which fell to 6.4% after the IPO.
Comcast-owned NBCUniversal is finalizing a plan that will dramatically change its partnership with Hulu, with some of NBC's best-known shows moving to NBCUniversal's streaming platform Peacock in the future. NBCUniversal has recently taken a number of steps to strengthen the Peacock platform; the platform has struggled to gain a foothold in a crowded streaming environment.
Lixun Precision announced that the company signed the "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement" with Chery Group, and intends to jointly establish a joint venture with Chery New Energy to specialize in the research and development and manufacturing of new energy vehicles. The Company's controlling shareholder, Lixun Co., Ltd., signed the Equity Transfer Framework Agreement with Qingdao Wudaokou, which stipulates that Lixun Limited will purchase 19.88% of the equity of Chery Holdings, 7.87% of the equity of Chery Shares and 6.24% of the equity of Chery New Energy held by Qingdao Wudaokou for 10.054 billion yuan, and after the completion of the transaction, Lixun Limited will not control Chery Holdings, Chery Shares and Chery New Energy.
According to the relevant information of the China Trademark Network of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, the "landing ship" trademark originally attributed to Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. was officially transferred to BYD Co., Ltd. on February 1, 2022. The Landing Ship is an MPV model of BYD's Marine Network warship series, which is expected to be launched next year. In fact, this is not the first time that the two companies have transferred their trademarks. As early as January 2016, BYD filed an application for the registration of the "Wei" trademark, which was subsequently transferred to Great Wall Motors in 2021. At that time, Great Wall Motors said it would transfer other registered trademarks to BYD.
Ford Motor is stepping up its plans to significantly convert the Lincoln brand's North American product line to electric vehicles, and the company is currently preparing to launch at least five new Lincoln electric sport utility vehicles (SUVs) by 2026. These models will replace or complement the models of lincoln adventurers, navigators, aviators, and navigators. The Lincoln brand's electric vehicle strategy is a key factor in Ford's plan to invest $30 billion in electric vehicles and batteries by 2030. The first new Lincoln electric vehicles are a large crossover, about the size of a flyer, and production is expected to begin at the Ford plant in Oakville, Ontario, in late 2024 or early 2025.
Tesla will set up a design center in Beijing. The electric car maker has said it will build a design and engineering center to develop cars designed in China for the global market, but has not said where it will be located. Beijing is pushing ahead with the construction of several important facilities related to electric vehicles.
Musk's US SpaceX company said that the Falcon rocket launched 49 "Starlink" satellites on February 3, and the next day encountered a magnetic storm caused by solar activity, resulting in 40 of them unable to deploy the orbit correctly and declaring "scrapped". On February 3, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent 49 Starlink satellites into a 210-kilometer-high low-Earth orbit. According to the scheduled plan, the satellites would need to activate their own Hall thrusters to lift the orbit to a working orbit of 540 kilometers. However, the satellites suffered a severe geomagnetic storm the next day, the satellites were unable to carry out orbital lifting operations, and as many as 40 satellites would re-enter or have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
Boteng announced that the company recently received a new batch of "purchase orders" from Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer, for which the company will provide contract custom research and development (CDMO) services. As of the date of the announcement, new orders totaled US$681 million (about 4.2 billion yuan), more than 50% of the company's audited operating income for the most recent fiscal year, and the orders are now effective. According to the performance pre-increase announcement previously released by Boteng Shares, the company expects to achieve operating income of 3.004 billion yuan to 3.108 billion yuan in 2021.
Unilever ruled out a major acquisition "for the foreseeable future." Previously, Unilever offered to buy GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health business for £50 billion, but it failed to do so. The takeover proposal sparked a backlash from shareholders. Instead, the company that makes Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Domisteros bleach said Thursday it would buy back up to 3 billion euros in shares over the next two years. The company is seeking to appease a group of investors who are disappointed by the group's falling share price.
Coca-Cola on Thursday pledged to achieve 25 percent of the world's packaging reusable by 2030, up from 16 percent in 2020. The move was welcomed by environmental groups, which have long accused the soft drink giant of exacerbating plastic pollution around the world. According to an annual report released by the Global Break Free From plastic alliance last October, Coca-Cola became the world's most polluted plastics company for the fourth consecutive year in 2021.
Jollibee Foods, one of Asia's largest food service groups, said it would ramp up spending and open more stores as fast-food consumers in the Philippines and around the world emerge from the nearly two-year COVID-19 lockdown. The company said thursday it had earmarked 17.8 billion pesos ($347 million) for capital expenditures in 2022, more than double the group's spending in 2021. The company, which operates 17 brands in 34 countries, said it plans to open 500 stores in 2022, up from 398 in 2021.
Japan's Seibu Holdings announced on the 10th that it will sell 31 domestic facilities such as the Prince Hotel and leisure facilities in various places to the Singapore government investment company "GIC", with a sales amount of about 150 billion yen. After the sale, the subsidiary of Seibu Holdings will still be responsible for operating the facility. The sale targets include 15 hotels, as well as ski resorts such as Niigata Naeba and golf courses in various places.
International technology group Korber has signed an agreement to acquire Siemens Logistics' global mail and parcel business. With this acquisition, Körber will significantly enhance the range of services for its supply chain products. Siemens Logistics offers mail and parcel technology as well as fully automated solutions for digital mail and parcel handling for leading logistics companies worldwide. The Siemens Logistics mail and parcel business employs around 1,200 people and generates annual revenues of around €500 million.
Earnings information
Volvo Cars reported earnings, and strong market demand led to record revenue and profit in 2021, despite continued shortages in parts supply. In 2021, Volvo's operating income was SEK 282 billion, an increase of about 7% from 2020, and operating profit reached SEK 20.3 billion, well above SEK 8.5 billion in 2020.
AstraZeneca reported record quarterly revenue, including $1.8 billion from COVID-19 vaccines and sales from its $39 billion acquisition of rare disease company Alexion. At constant exchange rates, the UK drugmaker's total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 surged 63% year-over-year to $12 billion. AstraZeneca's operating income in 2021 was US$37.417 billion, an increase of 40.58% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to the parent company was US$112 million, down 96.50% year-on-year.
Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, has released its 2021 earnings report. Trapped by a supply chain crisis sweeping the world, Vestas' operating profit fell sharply to nearly 40 percent last year. Vestas generated revenues of €15.6 billion in 2021 and €14.8 billion in 2020, and the company's EBIT before special items in 2021 was €461 million, compared to €750 million in 2020.
Under Armour announces fourth quarter 2021 results. Quarterly revenue was $1.53 billion, up 9% year-over-year, and net income was $110 million, compared to $184 million in the year-ago quarter, down 40% year-over-year.
Cleveland-Cliffs Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Financial Results. Fourth-quarter revenue was $5,346 million, compared to $2,255 million for the year-ago quarter, an increase of 137.1% year-over-year. Net income was $899 million, compared to $74 million in the year-ago quarter. Steel production in the fourth quarter was 3.384 million tons, compared with 1.858 million tons in the same period last year. Revenue for 2021 was $20,444 million, compared to $5,354 million in the prior year. Net income was $3,033 million, compared to a net loss of $81 million in the previous year.
Real estate vertical information website Zillow announces fourth quarter 2021 results. Total revenue was $3.88 billion, compared to $789.5 million for the year-ago quarter, net loss was $261.2 million, compared to a year-ago profit of $46.04 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $434,000, compared to a profit of $169.8 million in the prior year. By business, Zillow Offers revenue was $3.34 billion, up significantly from the previous year.