Sinochem Corp (中國中化) has offered to buy Australia’s Nufarm in China’s second attempt to takeover the farm chemicals producer.
The proposed A$2.8 billion (US$2.4 billion) deal will be the latest to draw the scrutiny of Australian foreign investment regulators as Chinese state-owned firms seek to expand their investments in foreign companies. Of several such plans in Australia, some have run into trouble.
Nufarm, which manufactures herbicides, fungicides and other chemicals used in farming, said yesterday it had entered into a nonbinding proposal for Sinochem to buy all of Nufarm’s shares for A$13 each, valuing the company at about A$2.8 billion.
Nufarm’s share price jumped more than 6 percent to A$11.87 after a trading halt was lifted. Also yesterday, Nufarm said its net profit for the year to July 31 had fallen 42 percent to A$79.9 million.
The company said in July that Sinochem had approached it about a potential takeover, but did not release details.
It was the second time China had approached Nufarm about a buyout. In 2007, a consortium led by China National Chemical Corp (中國化工), or ChemChina, launched a bid calculated at the time to be worth about A$3 billion, but the plan fell apart before it could be completed.
The latest deal requires approval from Australia’s foreign investment review board and the government. Treasurer Wayne Swan has said he will only sign off on large foreign investment deals if they are in the national interest.
Australia’s Defense Department cited security grounds last week when it vetoed Chinese investment in the proposed Hawks Nest Magnetite mine, which lies within in a military range in South Australia.
China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co (中國五礦) in March had to rejig its bid for Oz Minerals Ltd as one of its mines was also within the military area. The amended deal, worth A$1.7 billion, was approved by shareholders in June.
Rio Tinto in June dropped a US$19.5 billion bid from China’s Chinalco (中國鋁業) to increase its stake to 18 percent.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained