FINANCE
LIBOR trader trial starts
The first trader to face prosecution on charges of rigging global benchmark interest rates was to go on trial in London yesterday, following a scandal that handed banks hefty fines and damaged reputations. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said that Tom Hayes was the ringleader of more than a dozen traders that it said worked to rig the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) in the mid to late 2000s. Formerly a trader with Swiss bank UBS and its US rival, Citigroup, the 35-year-old Briton was to go before the court in Southwark, across the river from London’s financial center, in a trial expected to last weeks.
MEDIA
Charter eyes Time Warner
Charter Communications Inc reached an agreement to buy Time Warner Cable Inc for about US$55.33 billion in cash and stock, according to people familiar with the matter. Charter offered about US$195.71 a share — 14 percent above Time Warner Cable’s closing price on Friday last week — with US$100 in cash and the rest in its own stock, the people said. Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company that Charter is trying to buy, is also to be merged into the combined entity, they said. Charter, the fourth-biggest US cable company, is making its second move on No. 2 Time Warner Cable after its bid early last year was rejected and Comcast Corp swooped in with a competing offer.
AVIATION
Ryanair profits surge
Irish no-frills airline Ryanair yesterday announced its annual net profit surged by two-thirds, boosted by improved customer service, rising sales and sliding oil prices. Earnings after taxation surged by 66 percent to 866.7 million euros (US$945.1 million) in the year to March 31, compared with 522.8 million euros the previous fiscal year, Ryanair said in a statement. That beat the company’s own guidance of 840 million euros to 850 million euros. Passenger numbers swelled by 11 percent to 90.6 million, while revenues grew by 12 percent to 5.654 billion euros, it added.
HEALTHCARE
US firm eyes London listing
Boston-based PureTech Health PLC plans to raise US$160 million in a London listing, filling its coffers to fund product development and delivering a vote of confidence in the British life sciences sector. The planned initial public offering on the main market of the London Stock Exchange is expected to happen next month, the company said in a statement yesterday. The group specializes in building a portfolio of early-stage science and technology in the healthcare sector, typically from academia, and nurturing the ideas into commercially viable businesses.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AstraZeneca drug stumbles
AstraZeneca PLC’s hopes of topping US$45 billion in revenue by 2023 have been dealt a blow by a problem with an experimental psoriasis drug that the drugmaker had viewed as a potential billion-dollar-plus seller. Amgen, its partner on the project, announced late on Friday last week that it was ending a collaboration to develop brodalumab after suicidal thoughts were observed in patients taking the medicine. Deutsche Bank analyst Richard Parkes called the setback a surprise, adding that terminating the drug’s development would hit long-term consensus forecasts for AstraZeneca’s earnings by about 2 percent.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last