LUXURY GOODS
Coach to list in Hong Kong
US handbag maker Coach is to list shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by year end in an attempt to boost its Asia presence, especially in the fast-growing Chinese market, the company said. Coach, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, said no additional shares would be issued and no capital will be raised through the new listing. It did not state when it intends to file a listing application to the Hong Kong Exchange, but said the planned listing will take place before the end of this year, if approval is granted by the territory’s regulators. “Based on this timing, Coach believes it would be the first US domestic issuer to do a secondary listing in Hong Kong,” the firm said.
ELECTRONICS
S&P downgrades Sharp
Standard & Poor’s yesterday downgraded Japanese giant Sharp by one notch, citing competition in the liquid-crystal TV market and the impact of the March 11 earthquake. The agency said its rating on Sharp’s long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt was lowered to “A-” from “A” because of the pressures inflicted on the company by “the severe business environment.”
INTERNET
Google provides cover
Google has set aside US$500 million in anticipation of the results of a US government investigation into the practices of some of its advertisers. Google did not provide further details on the practices in question or what legal consequences the company might face. The provision reduced the company’s net income for the first quarter to US$1.798 billion from US$2.298 billion announced on April 14. Advertising accounted for 97 percent of the company’s US$8.575 billion revenue during the same period.
INTERNET
Jiayuan seeks NASDAQ IPO
China’s top online dating site, Jiayuan (世紀佳緣), was seeking to raise nearly US$78 million with an initial public offering (IPO) on Wall Street yesterday. Jiayuan.com, according to a filing on the NASDAQ Web site, plans to issue 7.1 million shares priced at between US$10 and US$12 each. It will be quoted under the symbol “DATE.” The Beijing-based company claims a total of 40.2 million registered user accounts and 4.7 million active users.
MEDIA
Disney misses target
Walt Disney Co reported a rare revenue miss after a weak box office performance that sent its shares down 3 percent. Strong advertising growth at sports network ESPN and a bounce in theme park attendance after Japan’s earthquake could not completely make up for a 13 percent drop in studio entertainment revenue in the fiscal second quarter. The largest US media conglomerate reported revenue of US$9.08 billion in the quarter that ended on April 2. However, Disney’s studio entertainment sales slid to US$1.34 billion in the quarter, from US$1.54 billion a year earlier.
OIL
Brazil okays BP’s blocks
BP says it has gained final regulatory approval in Brazil to buy 10 deep water exploration and production blocks. BP said Wednesday that the purchase had been approved by Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency. BP acquired the assets as part of a US$7 billion deal with Devon Energy, which also included the purchase of rights in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caspian Sea. BP will be looking for oil in waters up to 2,800m deep off the Brazilian coast.
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