INTERNET
Yahoo Japan nixes deal
Internet giant Yahoo Japan said yesterday that it had canceled plans to buy Japanese telecommunications company eAccess from its parent SoftBank Corp in a deal that was valued at about US$3.2 billion. In March, Yahoo’s Japanese unit — whose top shareholder is SoftBank — announced the deal which it said was aimed at growing the firm’s Internet services business through smartphones and tablets. However, yesterday Yahoo Japan said it had called off the merger after concluding it was more effective to operate the two firms independently. The deal had been scheduled to be completed in early June.
FINANCE
RBS reshapes offerings
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said on Sunday it is winding down its interest-rate trading business as capital and operating costs increase. RBS cited “increasing level of capital, operating costs and investment that would be required for business to be globally competitive in a market with extremely thin margins,” as the reason for winding down its rates prime broking and rates OTC clearing businesses. RBS’ prime broking business provides clients with margin consolidation and credit efficiency services, while its rates OTC clearing unit aids customers in clearing interest rates contracts that relate to over-the-counter transactions.
BANKING
Deutsche Bank raises capital
Deutsche Bank says it is raising 8 billion euros (US$11 billion) in new capital from investors to strengthen its finances as it faces tighter regulation and seeks to invest in promising business areas. The bank says it plans to raise 6.3 billion euros in a rights offering and has already secured 1.75 billion euros by placing shares with a single investor from Qatar. Co-CEO Anshu Jain told analysts yesterday that the fresh capital would also help it meet “unforeseen challenges” that may be ahead. The move would increase the bank’s capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength, to 11.8 percent. That is well beyond the bank’s 10 percent goal.
REAL ESTATE
British bidding war for mall
Three British retail property groups are among bidders eyeing a stake in Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent for a bid amount of £600 million (US$1 billion), The Times reported. British groups Land Securities Group PLC, British Land Company PLC in partnership with Norges Bank, and Hammerson PLC are understood to be the final bidders for the stake, the British daily said. Australia’s Westfield Group and the sovereign wealth fund of Norway are also thought to be finalists, the Times said.
MERGERS
Siemens readies energy bid
Germany’s Siemens AG is working on a formal asset-swap offer for Alstom SA’s power business that could come as early as this week and see France take a stake in a resulting rail-focused French group, sources close to the talks told Reuters. Alstom is already in talks with US conglomerate General Electric Co (GE) over a 12.35 billion euro bid for its power arm, which it is due to review by June 2. However, under strong political pressure, it has opened its books to Siemens so it can propose its own deal if it wants to. Moreover, a rival offer would give the French government more leverage with GE after it gave itself the power to block foreign takeovers in “strategic sectors.”
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