BUILDING MATERIALS
Votorantim plans IPO
Brazil’s top cement producer plans to raise up to US$5.4 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) there and in the US, official documents filed with US market regulators this week show. Sao Paulo-based Votorantim Cimentos filed documents on Wednesday for what would be the biggest IPO this year with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a government agency tasked with regulating the US markets and securities. The shares are to be listed on Sao Paulo’s Bovespa bourse and in American Depositary Receipt — one common share and two preferred shares — on the New York stock exchange. The economic daily Valor meanwhile Friday quoted market sources as saying Votorantim might use the IPO proceeds to buy Spain’s Cementos Balboa, which is part of Alfonso Gallardo group.
AUTOMAKERS
Lexus to be built in US
Toyota Motor Corp plans to assemble the Lexus ES 350 sedan at its Kentucky plant in 2015, marking the first time the Japanese automaker has built a vehicle from its luxury lineup in the US. Toyota said on Friday it would invest US$360 million at the Georgetown factory, which makes the Toyota Camry and other models. The move will create 750 new jobs and boost the plant’s production capacity by 10 percent to 550,000 vehicles. Expanding US production fits in with Toyota’s strategy to make cars in the markets where its customers live. The move also counters the effect of the strong yen, which has made exporting from Japan expensive.
MEXICO
Senate passes telecoms bill
A major bill to shake up competition in the telephone and TV markets, dominated by Carlos Slim and broadcaster Televisa, was approved by the Senate on Friday with changes that could affect the broader regulatory landscape. The bill encourages more foreign investment in the telecommunications sector and gives regulators the power to stop companies from controlling more than 50 percent of the market, a measure aimed directly at Slim and Televisa. Slim’s telephone company, America Movil, controls about 80 percent of the fixed line business and about 70 percent of the mobile market. Televisa has more than 60 percent of the TV market. Still, if companies are declared dominant by the competition regulator, forced asset sales will not be automatic. Seeking to accelerate change, the reform states telephone and TV companies will no longer be able to suspend decisions by the regulator on appeal.
SLOVENIA
Deficit revised to 4%
The statistics office revised upward on Friday the troubled eurozone country’s public deficit for last year to 4 percent of economic output, from a preliminary estimate of 3.7 percent. The change was due to lower-than-expected corporate tax income, the statistics office said, adding that this year’s forecast remained at 4.2 percent of GDP. Two-million-strong Slovenia, once a model EU newcomer, is seen as the next in line for a possible bailout due to major problems with its banks and a recession. The European Commission has estimated Slovenia’s public deficit last year was 4.4 percent of GDP and predicted a 5.1 percent shortfall for this year. Eurozone countries are obliged to keep their public deficits below 3 percent of GDP.
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
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured