HEALTHCARE
Novartis to take over Alcon
Novartis AG will take full control of Alcon Inc after agreeing to pay US$12.9 billion for stock of the eye-care company it doesn’t already own, ending an 11-month dispute with minority shareholders. The payment will be a combination of Novartis shares and, if necessary, a cash value to result in a total of US$168 a share, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said yesterday in a statement. Alcon’s Independent Director Committee recommended approval of the merger agreement to the Alcon board, Novartis said. The Swiss drugmaker in January exercised an option to buy Nestle SA’s 52 percent stake in Alcon for an average of US$180 a share in cash, giving it 77 percent of the company. It also offered to purchase stock held by the public at a lower price.
ENERGY
Indian firm buys coal mine
An Indian infrastructure company has bought a thermal coal mine in Australia in one of India’s largest-ever investments in the country. The company, Lanco Infratech, said yesterday it had reached a binding purchase agreement with the administrator of the failed Griffin Coal company that operated the mine in Western Australia state. It didn’t disclose a price. The coal will fuel power stations in fast-growing India. The Australian newspaper without citing a source said Lanco paid up to A$850 million (US$850 million), beating out rival bidders from Japan and China.
ENERGY
TRU to buy Aussie assets
Hong Kong utility CLP Holdings Ltd said yesterday that its Australian subsidiary is buying energy assets from the New South Wales state government for A$2 billion (US$2 billion). CLP said its Australian unit, TRUenergy, agreed to buy state-owned EnergyAustralia’s energy retailing business, electricity trading rights for state-owned Delta Electricity’s coal fired power stations and development sites for three future power station projects. CLP said in a statement that the deal is expected to be completed by March. It will more than double TRUenergy’s customers in Australia to 2.76 million and double the company’s power generation capacity in the country to 5,446 megawatts from 3,046MW currently.
APPLIANCES
Electrolux to cut 2,100 jobs
Swedish appliance maker Electrolux AB says it plans to cut 2,100 jobs in Europe and Canada in the next three years as it continues to trim its costs. The Stockholm-headquartered group will close a cooking product plant in l’Assomption, Quebec, at the end of 2013. The plant has 1,300 staff and production from it will instead be transferred to a new facility, starting in 2012. The company also says it plans to lay off 800 employees in Europe next year and in 2012. The staff cuts will be made within its Major Appliances industrial operations, but will lead to no factory closures.
BANKING
RBS to transfer clients
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will transfer its retail and commercial banking clients in three of China’s largest cities to Singapore’s DBS Bank, it was announced yesterday. Under an agreement between the two lenders, an estimated 25,000 RBS customers in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen will be given the option to transfer their accounts to DBS, the Singapore bank said in a statement. It said the transfer process was expected to be completed within six months, and some employees would also move as part of the deal.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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