Zurich — Swiss private banks saw assets under management climb to a record Sf3.4-trillion in 2024, driven by positive financial markets, KPMG said on Thursday.
Net profits in the sector grew to more than Sf4bn last year, up from just more than Sf3.1bn in 2023, despite declining interest income and rising costs, the annual study of Swiss private banks said.
Earnings grew largely due to higher commission and trading income, with the market environment expected to become increasingly challenging, the report said.
The number of private banks in Switzerland has steadily declined and is likely to fall below 80 by the end of 2025, nearly half the number in 2010, the report said. Reuters˛
Chinese AI chip start-up raises funds ahead of IPO
Beijing — Chinese AI chip start-up Biren Technology has raised about 1.5bn yuan ($207m) in fresh funding and is preparing for a Hong Kong initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said.
The funding round and IPO plan come as China seeks to develop domestic alternatives to US semiconductors amid escalating export restrictions by Washington on advanced chips.
Beijing has prioritised building home-grown champions in graphics processing units (GPUs), which are critical for artificial intelligence development.
The 1.5bn yuan funding round was led primarily by state-linked investors, two of the sources said. Participants included a state-backed fund from Guangdong province and another from the Shanghai government, according to one source.
Biren initially filed documents for a mainland China listing last year but has since shifted focus to Hong Kong, partly due to stricter regulatory requirements on the mainland including less tolerance for loss-making companies, two of the sources said.
JetBlue investor considers dumping stake
New York — JetBlue Airways’ second-largest investor, Vladimir Galkin, is threatening to sell his near 10% stake in the struggling air carrier if the company’s cost-cutting plan and other broader efforts fail to turn around its performance.
Galkin, who lives in Miami, Florida, was a big winner from Gamestop’s “meme stock” rally in 2021 and invested more than $200m in JetBlue between February and August 2024. The New York air carrier has been struggling with weakened travel demand, as the company withdrew its full-year forecast in April, saying it is unlikely to break even in 2025.
Shares are down 43% year to date, while peers Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are down 17% and 18%, respectively. That’s left Galkin sitting on a losing position. Reuters
UK’s Volex reports profit growth on EV demand
Bengularu — Britain’s Volex jumped more than 20% on Thursday after the power and data transmission products maker reported double-digit growth in annual revenue and profit, buoyed by strong EV demand and higher North America sales.
The company, which supplies parts to original equipment manufacturers and electronics makers, said its EV division posted organic revenue growth of 40.2% for the year ended March, helped by new contracts and existing orders.
Meanwhile, North America, its biggest market, reported a 35.2% rise in revenue, driven by demand for EVs and data centres. Revenue for its consumer electricals unit, its largest business, grew 9.6% for the period.
Its shares rose as much as 384.5 pence apiece in morning trade, their highest level since November 2021. Reuters
Survey shows decline in British retail sales
London — British retail sales slumped this month and expectations within the industry for July also deteriorated, a Confederation of British Industry (CBI) survey showed on Thursday.
The CBI’s monthly gauge of how retail sales compared with a year earlier fell to minus 46 in June from minus 27 in May.
A measure of expected sales for July fell to minus 49 from minus 37 for June. Reuters
CarUX to buy a 100% stake in Japan’s Pioneer
Taipei — CarUX, a smart cockpit solutions provider and a subsidiary of Taiwan’s display maker Innolux Corporation, said on Thursday it will acquire Japan’s Pioneer Corporation in a deal valued at ¥163.6bn.
Pioneer was once a major Japanese player in consumer electronics, whose decline presaged the broader industry shake-up to come as Japanese manufacturers were unable to keep with larger, more efficient producers such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.
CarUX said it has signed a definitive agreement with EQT, a global investment firm, to acquire a 100% stake in the Japanese electronics company.
The deal is expected to increase CarUX’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region and broaden its global product portfolio by combining its display and touch technology expertise with Pioneer’s strengths in automotive sound system and human machine interface software development, the company said in a statement. Reuters
Corporate bankruptcies soar in Germany
Berlin — Corporate bankruptcies in Germany were at their highest level in a decade in the first half of 2025, as firms in Europe’s largest economy struggle with weak demand, rising costs and uncertainty, a study by economic tracking agency Creditreform showed on Thursday.
About 11,900 corporate insolvencies were registered in the first six months of this year, 9.4% more than in the same period last year, the agency said.
Companies are increasingly having problems as their financial reserves dwindle and loans are sometimes no longer being extended, said Creditreform chief economist Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch.
Roughly 141,000 employees worked at the affected companies, an increase of 6%, driven by large-scale insolvencies, the agency said. Reuters
Palantir teams up on AI system for nuclear reactors
Mexico City — Palantir Technologies on Thursday said it was teaming up with a nuclear deployment company to develop an AI-driven software system built for the construction of nuclear reactors.
Nuclear energy has garnered renewed interest from investors and companies, as it is considered to be a cleaner source of fuel and more reliable than wind or solar energy.
Palantir and Nuclear Company will jointly create the nuclear operating system, which will simplify construction, allowing the firm to build plants faster and at lower cost.
The deal follows US President Donald Trump’s executive orders that aimed to boost US nuclear energy production amid a boom in demand from data centres and AI. Reuters
UK’s Next 15 warns about big fall in profit
Bengaluru — Consultancy and marketing services provider Next 15 Group warned on Thursday that its fiscal 2026 profit would probably fall materially below market expectations, a day after it disclosed “potential serious misconduct” at its California-based venture-building firm Mach49.
Shares of the firm tumbled as much as 21% to 228.5 pence, their lowest since April 22.
On Wednesday, Next 15 said it had terminated the employment of three members of the senior management at Mach49 and was in the process of reporting the matters of misconduct to relevant law enforcement agencies.
Next 15 did not disclose what the concerns were. Reuters could not immediately reach Mach49 or the three terminated employees for a comment on Thursday.
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