PHARMACEUTICALS
GSK sells 25 older brands
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) yesterday advanced its clear-out of non-core drugs with a deal to sell 25 older brands marketed in Australia to South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare for £172 million (US$270 million). The old Australian brands being bought by Aspen include herpes treatment Valtrex, epilepsy drug Lamictal and the antibiotic Amoxil. In total, the 25 products generated sales of about £83 million last year and £31 million in the first half of this year. Revenues for these products have gradually declined over recent years due to generic competition. The sale to Aspen is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals from Australian authorities, and GSK said net cash proceeds would be about £155 million.
INDIA
Economy a security risk: PM
India’s national security is at risk if urgent steps are not taken to boost economic growth, attract new investment in infrastructure and legislate against corruption, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday. Singh warned that if economic growth remained stagnant, new investments were discouraged, government finances did not improve and energy security was not ensured, “then it most certainly affects our national security.” Singh’s speech marking the 65th anniversary of India’s independence from British rule comes after large parts of India’s power grid collapsed over two days last month, leaving hundreds of millions without electricity.
JEWELRY
De Beers Botswana starts
The world’s leading producer of diamonds, De Beers, on Tuesday began rough stone sorting in Botswana, a first step in its transfer from London to Gaborone. Rough stone sorting or aggregation operations have been based in London for nearly 80 years. De Beers CEO Philippe Mellier told reporters it was the first step in a process that should be completed by the end of next year. Mellier said the move would transform Botswana into a leading international center, with about US$6 billion worth of diamonds expected to flow through the country.
BEVERAGES
Soccer lifts Carlsberg profits
Danish brewer Carlsberg said the European soccer championship helped its second-quarter profits spike 63 percent. The company said net profit during the period rose to 3.36 billion kroner (US$556 million) from 2.06 billion kroner in the same period last year, while revenue increased to 19.6 billion kroner from 18.74 billion kroner. The Copenhagen-based group says Euro 2012, in which it was a sponsor, and bad weather combined to boost the quarter and help offset a 3 to 4 percent decline in most of Europe. However, Russia — Carlsberg’s key market — saw consumption rise 2 percent. Carlsberg yesterday added that its operating profit outlook for this year remained unchanged.
REAL ESTATE
Singapore home sales spike
Singapore home sales last month rose to the highest in three months, boosted by demand for new condominiums in the suburbs. The city-state’s private residential property sales rose 42 percent to 1,943 units from a month ago, the highest since 2,497 units were sold in April, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday. Sales rebounded after slumping to 1,371 units in June, the lowest this year.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by