BEIJING, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Shipments of foreign-branded smartphones, including Apple Inc's ( AAPL ) iPhone, in China rose 0.6% in December year-on-year, according to data released on Friday by a government-affiliated research firm. Calculations based on the data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed that during the month, shipments of foreign-branded phones in China...

By Mimosa Spencer and Tassilo Hummel PARIS (Reuters) - French luxury group Hermes reported an 18% rise in fourth quarter sales on Friday, showing robust appetite from wealthy shoppers for the most expensive luxury items like its Birkin bags, which cost upwards of $10,000. Hermes continues to outshine rivals, thanks to its wealthier customers as the industry suffers its slowest...

HSINCHU, Taiwan, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Taiwan's GlobalWafers has not received any notifications indicating upcoming modifications to agreed subsidies under the U.S. CHIPS Act, CEO Doris Hsu said on Friday. The current status is that the CHIPS Act remains unchanged, and GlobalWafers has secured contracts worth $406 million. At present there have been no notifications there are to be modifications,...

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Australia's HealthCo Healthcare and Wellness REIT said on Friday that a consortium led by David Di Pilla's HMC Capital ( HMCLF ) had approached it for a possible buyout of Healthscope hospitals. Healthscope, which is the country's second-largest private hospital operator with about 38 hospitals, accounts for nearly 59% of HealthCo's gross earnings and has a...