RETAIL
Prada sets IPO at low end
Italian fashion house Prada SpA has set its Hong Kong initial public offering price (IPO) at HK$39.50. The pricing is at the low end of the range, underscoring investors’ wariness of stocks amid a global market slump. Yesterday’s statement confirms an Asoociated Press report last week, which cited a source close to the deal who declined to be identified. Prada is selling 423.3 million shares to raise roughly HK$16.7 billion (US$2.1 billion). Hong Kong individual investors are getting 5 percent of shares, half the proportion they usually get. That’s an indication that local investors, who normally play a big role in initial public offerings, have been turned off by the possibility they may have to pay Italian taxes.
AUTOMAKERS
BYD IPO oversubscribed
BYD Co (比亞迪), the Chinese carmaker backed by Warren Buffett, said the online tranche of shares in its IPO in Shenzhen was 21 times oversubscribed. Demand from institutional investors made the so-called offline tranche 3.9 times oversubscribed, the Shenzhen-based company said in a separate stock exchange filing yesterday. BYD, which wants to raise 1.35 billion yuan (US$209 million) in net proceeds after deducting issuance fees, plans to use part of the money to expand its vehicle lineup and for research and development. The maker of automobiles and batteries will sell a combined 79 million shares at 18 yuan each, it said on Sunday.
INSURANCE
Aviva to sell RAC
Aviva is to sell its RAC roadside rescue business to private equity firm The Carlyle Group for £1 billion (US$1.6 billion), as the British group continues scaling back from non-core areas to focus on its insurance operations. Aviva said yesterday it expected an accounting profit of £600 million from the sale of Britain’s second-largest breakdown recovery group and would use the proceeds to strengthen its balance sheet and invest in its main markets. Aviva has been trying to boost profit by concentrating on 12 markets where it makes most money. As part of its plan, the company has walked away from less profitable businesses in Italy and the US.
AUTOMAKERS
Saab employees unpaid
Swedish automaker Saab cannot pay its 3,800 employees their wages for lack of “short-term funding,” the Dutch parent company Swedish Automobile, formerly known as Spyker, said yesterday. Saab, which has based its funding strategy on tie-ups in China, had announced on June 13 a partnership with two Chinese businesses which was to generate investment of 245 million euros (US$350 million). However, production at the Saab factory at Trollhattan in Sweden has been at a standstill since June 8. On Monday, management told workers on the assembly lines that they should not come to work before July 4.
CHINA
Preliminary PMI shows fall
Growth in China’s manufacturing activity fell to an 11-month low last month, preliminary HSBC data released yesterday showed, as Beijing’s efforts to cool the red-hot economy continued to bite. HSBC’s preliminary purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to 50.1 last month from a final reading of 51.6 in May. A reading above 50 indicates the sector is expanding, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction. “Demand is cooling thanks to the effect of tightening measures and the slackness in external markets,” HSBC said. The final PMI reading will be released next week.
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