PHARMACEUTICALS
Shire rejects £27bn bid
British drugmaker Shire has rejected a £27 billion (US$46 billion) takeover offer from AbbVie, the latest attempt by a US healthcare firm to tap into a London-listed group’s low tax rate. Shire, which has no single controlling shareholder, has been seen as a prime takeover target for US drugmakers due to its attractive rare diseases business and tax base in Ireland. AbbVie’s offer proposed creating a new US-listed holding company with a UK tax domicile in a so-called “inversion” move. In a statement yesterday, Shire said that after a meeting with AbbVie to discuss key aspects of its “highly conditional” proposal, the board decided to reject it, “on the basis that it fundamentally undervalued the company and its prospects.”
AUSTRALIA
Hospital operator eyes IPO
Private equity firms TPG Capital and Carlyle Group are planning to raise about A$2.5 billion (US$2.4 billion) in an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in Healthscope Ltd, the nation’s biggest private hospitals operator, a source with direct knowledge of the plan told reporters. Healthscope’s owners are on a roadshow in Asia, lining up cornerstone investors before filing the IPO prospectus by the end of this month or early next month, the person said. A US$2.4 billion listing for Healthscope would be the country’s third-biggest ever. It would be the largest since rail freight company QR National Ltd, now known as Aurizon Holdings Ltd, raised US$4.4 billion in 2010, according to Thomson Reuters data. Healthscope’s private equity owners have explored a listing, a sale to a trade buyer or a spin-off of property assets via a trust, the source said.
EUROZONE
Current account surplus rises
The eurozone’s current account surplus grew to 21.5 billion euros (US$29.3 billion) in April, European Central Bank data showed Friday. The monthly figure is higher than a surplus of 19.6 billion euros in March, according to revised data. The current account on the balance of payments, which includes payments for imports and exports in both goods and services plus all other current transfers, is a closely tracked indicator of the ability of a country or area to pay its way. It is crucial for the long-term confidence of investors and trading partners, and an important factor in the value of a currency on the foreign-exchange market. Over the 12 months to April, the current account showed a surplus of 248.7 billion euros, compared to 177.7 billion euros a year earlier, the data showed.
CHINA
Shanghai gold trade likely
China, the world’s biggest gold user, is to start international gold trading in Shanghai’s free-trade zone in the final quarter of this year, a city government official said. The nation’s central bank earlier this week approved the trading platform to be included in the zone’s banking system. China, also the world’s largest bullion producer, is seeking to step up its presence in the global gold market as the industry discusses changes to the century-old fixing benchmark in London used to trade and value the metal. “The new platform is to attract foreign investors and to get China more influence in the global bullion market,” said Liu Xu, an analyst at Capital Futures Co (首都期貨) in Beijing. Qualified investors can open accounts with the four designated banks including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd to trade gold in the area, the People’s Bank of China’s Shanghai head office said June 18.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is