China’s biggest home electronics retailer, Suning Appliance Co (蘇寧電器), said yesterday that it would take a controlling stake in Japanese rival Laox through a private placement of shares.
Suning Appliance and its parent Suning Appliance Group will buy a combined 257 million shares in Laox for ￥9 billion (US$111 million), according to a statement filed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
The share placement will boost Suning Appliance’s stake in Laox to 51 percent from 34.28 percent, Suning said in the statement. Its parent will hold 14.3 percent.
CHINESE CITIES
Suning aims to open 150 Laox Life outlets in 25 Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai during the next five years to sell consumer electronics as well as toys, animation and comic products and musical instruments, it said.
Suning purchased a stake in the struggling Japanese consumer electronics retailer for the first time in 2009, buying 27.36 percent of the company for ￥800 million. It has increased its holding in Laox several times since.
REVENUES
Suning had more than 1,300 stores in China, Hong Kong and Japan at the end of last year, generating 75.5 billion yuan (US$11.67 billion) in revenues, up 29.5 percent compared with the previous year.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS