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.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”