SINGAPORE
Formula One IPO approved
The stock exchange has approved a plan by Formula One to raise as much as US$3 billion in an initial public offering (IPO), three people with knowledge of the matter said. The people asked not to be identified because the information is private. Formula One’s IPO would be the nation’s largest since February last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, helping it challenge Hong Kong in attracting listings by brand-name companies. However, the owner of the Formula One racing series would have to overcome a stock selloff that has pushed the MSCI World Index down 9 percent this month amid concerns that Greece could exit the eurozone.
HONG KONG
Graff roadshow starts
High-end London-based jeweler Graff Diamonds yesterday launched a roadshow for its reported US$1 billion IPO in the territory. Graff Diamonds founder and chairman Laurence Graff and chief executive officer Francois Graff met potential investors at a hotel, but did not speak to reporters. In a filing with the stock exchange, the company said it made US$623.5 million in retail sales last year compared with US$454.3 million the year before. The roadshow is scheduled to run until May 31 when the IPO will be priced.
FINANCE
City jobs see pay freeze
Pay was frozen in more than nine out of 10 types of investment banking jobs in the City of London financial district over the past year, according to research published yesterday by financial services recruitment firm Astbury Marsden. The research, which looked at 142 different investment banking functions, showed there was no increase in the average basic salary in 92 percent of jobs in the year to the end of March. Astbury Marsden’s chief operating officer Mark Cameron said that although institutions had not been formally implementing pay freezes, a surplus of quality candidates and concerns over the eurozone crisis had created that effect.
AVIATION
Ryanair posts record profit
Irish no-frills airline Ryanair yesterday posted record annual profit on higher passenger numbers and ticket prices, but warned that recession in Europe would weaken future earnings. Profit after tax was 503 million euros (US$643 million) in the 12 months to March 31, up 25 percent compared on the previous financial year, the company said in a results statement. Ryanair yesterday added that revenues increased by 19 percent to 4.33 billion euros from last year to this year.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li