SERVICES
Saga prices IPO at low end
Saga, the UK insurance and holidays firm for the over-50s, has priced its London share flotation at the bottom of its offer range, valuing the company at £2.1 billion (US$3.5 billion) and leaving its private equity owners struggling to sell down their stakes. It had orginally been intended for the offering to comprise a mix of new shares to raise fresh capital and existing shares held by the private equity firms. However, after pricing at £1.85 a share, the bottom of the £1.85 to £2.45 range, Saga will only sell £550 million of new shares in its initial public offering (IPO). “They’re barely going to sell. This is the worst case scenario,” said a banker on the deal, adding that the IPO process had been “frustrating.”
ENERGY
GE agrees to Alstom delay
General Electric Co (GE) agreed to a French government request to extend by three weeks the deadline for its planned US$17 billion purchase of Alstom SA energy units. The Fairfield, Connecticut-based company had been asked to delay consideration of its offer until June 23 as French officials seek better terms. GE conceded, saying on Thursday it intended “to facilitate ongoing discussions.” The French government said in a separate statement that the extension would allow it to work with the companies to address its concerns, adding that it was in everyone’s interest to work “efficiently and rapidly” to find a solution. French President Francois Hollande and Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg have been vocal in calling on GE to improve its offer. Hollande has said GE’s bid is “not acceptable” and asked the company to improve jobs guarantees.
INTERNET
Facebook adjusts settings
Facebook has responded to frustration over its privacy policies by switching off the default setting that led many users to accidentally share their posts with the entire world wide Web. Anyone joining Facebook now will only share posts with friends and family, unless they explicitly choose to make their information open to everyone, according to a post on the company’s blog. The change will not affect its existing 1.28 billion account holders, who will be prompted to carry out a “privacy check-up.” Facebook is facing stiff competition from a wave of social apps such as Snapchat, Secret and WhatsApp— which it recently acquired for US$19 billion — that have made discretion a selling point. Facebbok privacy product manager Mike Nowak said the decision to reduce the risk of new users over-sharing was taken in response to feedback.
BANKING
Barclays fined over trader
Scandal-hit Barclays PLC has been fined more than £26 million after a former trader at the bank was accused of trying to manipulate the price of gold, Britain’s financial regulator said yesterday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said in a statement that it had fined Barclays £26.03 million “for failing to adequately manage conflicts of interest between itself and its customers as well as systems and controls failings” in relation to a fixed London pricing of gold over a nine-year period to last year. This is a fresh blow for Barclays, which was at the heart of the Libor interest-rate rigging scandal in 2012. The troubled British bank is also facing investigations along with other major lenders over possible manipulation of foreign exchange trades. The FCA added that it had fined former Barclays trader Daniel James Plunkett £95,600 and banned him from working within any “regulated activity.”
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last