AVIATION
JAL notes possible glitch
Japan Airlines (JAL) yesterday said it has reported to Boeing Co a possible glitch in the battery system on the 787 Dreamliner, after pilots saw an indicator warning light en route from Finland. JAL said instruments warned pilots there was a problem with the battery connected to the plane’s auxiliary power unit on the flight from Helsinki to Tokyo on Friday last week. Engine monitoring systems showed the voltage and electrical current were within normal ranges and the plane arrived at Helsinki without delay, a JAL spokesman said.
HEALTHCARE
Grifols to buy Novartis unit
Novartis AG has agreed to sell a blood transfusion diagnostics unit to Spanish healthcare company Grifols SA for US$1.68 billion, the Swiss company’s biggest asset sale since 2008. Novartis expects to complete the sale to Europe’s largest maker of blood plasma products in the first half of next year, the Basel-based company said in a statement. The Swiss drugmaker acquired the blood unit when it bought Chiron in 2006.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Shire to acquire ViroPharma
British drugs group Shire PLC yesterday said it has agreed to buy US-based ViroPharma Inc, a rare disease biopharmaceutical firm, for US$4.2 billion. “Shire PLC and ViroPharma Incorporated today [yesterday] announce that their boards of directors have unanimously approved and the companies have entered into a merger agreement pursuant to which Shire will acquire all the outstanding shares of the rare disease company ViroPharma for ... a total consideration of approximately US$4.2 billion,” the companies said.
TELECOMS
Deutsche Telekom to buy GTS
Deutsche Telekom AG agreed to buy GTS Central Europe for 546 million euros (US$730 million), adding landline networks in countries where the German phone company’s services are predominantly wireless. Deutsche Telekom is acquiring Warsaw-based GTS from private equity firms, including Columbia Capital, HarbourVest Partners, Innova Capital and M/C Partners, the Bonn-based company said on Sunday. The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, will give Deutsche Telekom landline grids in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.
CHINA
Car sales rose last month
The nation’s passenger vehicle sales rose 24 percent last month, helped by a recovery in economic growth and rebound in demand for Japanese brands. Wholesale deliveries of cars, multipurpose and sport utility vehicles climbed to 1.61 million units last month, the state-backed Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday. That compares with the median estimate of 1.5 million units made by three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
MINING
Anglo mine hit by protest
Thousands of workers at an Anglo American Platinum Ltd mine in South Africa have refused to come out from underground in protest at the suspension of one of their leaders, the firm said on Sunday. The workers, members of the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, have been underground for nearly two days at the top global producer’s Dishaba mine in the northern Limpopo Province, company spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said. The leader was suspended for “a breach of safety regulations,” the firm said.
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],”
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
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