Daiwa Securities Group Inc, Japan’s second-largest brokerage, agreed to buy KBC Groep NV’s convertible bond unit and its Asia equity derivatives business for about US$1 billion.
Under the agreement, Daiwa is paying about US$200 million for assets and about US$800 million for the trading position, the companies said in a joint statement yesterday.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed early in the fourth quarter, according to the release.
Daiwa chief executive officer Shigeharu Suzuki is expanding broking and investment banking operations globally after ending a decade-long venture with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc in December.
The acquisition will help Daiwa boost revenue at its equities and bond business by about ¥15 billion (US$171 million) annually, said Kenichi Kanda, a Tokyo-based spokesman.
The brokerage in April posted an unexpected quarterly loss even as main local rival Nomura Holdings Inc, which bought Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc’s Asian and European operation in 2008, returned to profit.
Daiwa earned ¥121 billion from its equities and bond businesses in the fiscal year ended March 31, Kanda said.
KBC, Belgium’s biggest bank by market value, said the transaction would result in an increase in its Tier 1 capital ratio of 10 basis points.
Over the last two years, the Global Convertible Bond and Asia Equity Derivatives units contributed about 2 percent of KBC Groep’s profit, the company said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last