PHARMACEUTICALS
Drug asset swap talks
French pharmaceutical company Sanofi and German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim on Tuesday said that they were in “exclusive negotiations” on a potential asset swap that would make Sanofi one of the world’s largest manufacturers of nonprescription medicines. Under the terms of the deal, Sanofi would sell its animal health business to Boehringer and Sanofi would receive 4.7 billion euros (US$5.1 billion) in cash and Boehringer’s consumer healthcare business, excluding its operations in China. Sanofi’s animal health business, known as Merial, is valued at about 11.4 billion euros, while Boehringer’s consumer healthcare business is worth about 6.7 billion euros.
FINANCE
Global, Heartland to merge
Global Payments on Tuesday said that it plans to buy Heartland Payment Systems, a fellow payment processor focused on small to midsize businesses, for about US$4.3 billion in cash and stock. The combination would be the latest in the payments industry as companies around the world move toward e-commerce. Together, Global Payments and Heartland have about 2.5 million customers and are expected to report more US$1 billion in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. Shares of Global Payments rose 1.6 percent on Tuesday to US$71.43, while those of Heartland closed up nearly 3 percent at US$85.16.
AUTOMAKERS
Toxic smog sees sales bans
India’s top court has ordered a temporary ban on the sale of large diesel cars in New Delhi and hiked a levy on trucks entering the city, as the nations highly polluted capital seeks ways to tackle one of its worst-ever bouts of toxic smog. Local television stations said that an order passed by the Supreme Court yesterday bans the registration of new diesel luxury cars and sport-utility vehicles with an engine capacity of 2,000cc or more in New Delhi and the surrounding region from Jan. 1 to March 31. The court stopped short of banning smaller cars.
CURRENCies
Capital flows out of Thailand
Higher US rates might boost the allure of its bonds just as capital is flowing out of Thailand. The Thai baht dropped 0.2 percent to US$35.970 as of 12:40pm yesterday in Bangkok, after rising 0.7 percent on Tuesday, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. It has lost 8.5 percent this year, the third-worst performance in Asia after the Malaysian ringgit and Indonesia’s rupiah. Global funds have pulled a net US$4.3 billion from Thai stocks and bonds this year as the prospect of a US rate increase sapped demand for emerging-market assets. Thailand’s overseas shipments contracted in the first 10 months and analysts expect the economy to expand 2.7 percent this year, compared with the 0.9 percent pace last year, the slowest since 2011.
ENGINES
Rolls-Royce cutting costs
British engines maker Rolls-Royce, hit by a series of profit warnings, yesterday announced changes to its top management structure, resulting in the departure of its head of aerospace. The group is looking to make cost savings of US$226 million to US$301 million from 2017, it said last month. Rolls meanwhile revealed in the second half of this year that it plans to cut about 1,000 jobs at its marine division as slumping oil prices weigh on demand for vessels.
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],”