The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday that it approved an application by LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化學) to merge its styrenic block copolymer (SBC) unit with Kraton Performance Polymers Inc of the US, in accordance with Article 12 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法).
On Jan. 28, LCY Chemical, whose businesses involve the manufacture and distribution of polypropylene, solvents and other chemical products, and Kraton announced that they had inked an agreement to form a new company with ownership split evenly between the two.
The two companies said in a statement distributed by PRNewswire that the transaction will combine LCY Chemical’s cost-effective and innovative SBC operations and Kraton’s broad product portfolio and innovation platform to form a US$2 billion venture.
The new entity will be based in Houston, Texas, and led by Kraton president and chief executive officer Kevin Fogarty, the statement said.
It will be incorporated in the UK and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, it said.
In a press release posted on the commission’s Web site yesterday, the FTC said the merger would not stop other companies from entering the SBC market.
“The merger is not expected to pose a significant threat to competition within the market, and the overall economic benefit of the deal is greater than the negative impact of restrictions on competition,” the commission said.
The deal, which is also subject to regulatory approvals in the US, China and Turkey, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year, LCY Chemical 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],”
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
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