HOTELS
Investors reject Wynn bid
Shareholders of Wynn Resorts Ltd on Friday rejected the bid by Elaine Wynn, cofounder and former wife of CEO Stephen Wynn, to remain on the company’s board, ending the most public and awkward proxy battle in the company’s 13-year history. Elaine Wynn, 72, is the third-largest shareholder. She appeared sanguine and poised as the results were announced at a shareholder meeting, aware that the odds had been against her. “While I am certainly disappointed by the result of today’s vote, I am hopeful that I have once again served as an agent for change and improvement for this company, which I love so deeply,” she said in a statement.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Mylan bid for Perrigo official
Generic drugmaker Mylan NV is making official its offer for over-the-counter medicines maker Perrigo Co as it remains at the center of a three-way battle: Mylan wants to buy Perrigo, while a larger rival wants to buy Mylan. Perrigo has already rejected Mylan’s offer and on Friday reiterated it feels the bid, worth more than US$30 billion, is too low. Meanwhile, Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd on Friday said it is committed to acquiring Mylan, which in turn has expressed skepticism about Teva’s plan. Teva is offering US$40.1 billion for Mylan.
MALI
Economy grows by 7.2%
The nation’s economy posted growth of 7.2 percent last year, the IMF said on Friday, in an encouraging sign of recovery from the chaos of a coup and long-running armed conflict. Christian Josz, the IMF’s mission chief in the capital, Bamako, compared the figure with weak 1.7 percent growth in 2013 and stagnation in 2012. He praised the government for making “major efforts to strengthen the management of public finances, insisting on compliance with fiscal rules and reversals of markets” in the final months of last year.
CONSTRUCTION
EU approves Lafarge sale
The EU on Friday removed a key hurdle to the merger between French cement giant Lafarge SA and Swiss rival Holcim Ltd, approving the sale of assets demanded for the deal to go through. Lafarge and Holcim agreed to their 40 billion euro (US$43.5 billion) tie-up to form the world’s biggest cement company last year, but EU regulators said they would have to sell assets worth 6.5 billion euros to ease fears the new firm would hurt competition. The European Commission said it has approved the sale of those assets to Irish building materials group CRH PLC, finding that it posed no separate competition risk.
VENEZUELA
Ex-minister confirms case
A former transportation minister confirmed in an interview released on Friday that officials have filed a corruption complaint against him. Local media have reported that a warrant is out for his arrest. Major General Hebert Garcia Plaza said the allegations involve a deal to buy three ferries from Europe on behalf of the South American country. He told the weekly newspaper Quinto Dia that he is still deciding whether to present himself for a hearing. Garcia Plaza denied any involvement in corrupt deals, and said he does not trust the country’s justice system.
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],”