LUXURY GOODS
Osim CEO makes cash bid
Osim International Ltd chairman and chief executive officer Ron Sim is making an unconditional cash offer of S$310 million (US$224.1 million) for the company’s shares he does not own in order to make Asia’s largest maker of massage chairs private. Sim, who controls 68.31 percent of Osim, offered to buy the shares at S$1.32 per share through his investment vehicle, Vision Three Pte Ltd, according to a statement yesterday. That is a 7.8 percent premium to the last traded at S$1.225 on Tuesday last week before shares were suspended. “The offer provides an opportunity to Osim’s minority shareholders to sell their stake at a significant premium over the prevailing share price amidst challenging market conditions,” Sim’s investment company said in the statement.
UTILITIES
RWE plans 2,500 job cuts
Germany’s second-largest utility plans to cut about 2,500 jobs at RWE npower, a source close to the matter said, as it confronts customer losses and billing issues at its struggling British subsidiary. RWE is facing the biggest crisis in its 118-year-history, faced with ultra-low wholesale power prices, large exposure to coal and gas and only a small presence in renewable energy. Its shares have more than halved over the past year. In Britain, tougher competition has caused a loss of about 200,000 customers in the first nine months of the year, compared with 100,000 for the first half. That has prompted a review of the business, which its finance chief said in November last year might trigger job cuts and even a sale.
INSURANCE
Rand Merchant costs rise
Rand Merchant Investment Holdings Ltd, a South African investor in insurance and fund-management companies, said first-half profit declined 15 percent after net finance costs increased and the domestic economy slowed. Net income for the six months ended December last year fell to 1.55 billion rand (US$101 million) from 1.8 billion rand a year earlier, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement yesterday. Earnings per share excluding one-time items dropped 17 percent to 1.01 rand from 1.22 rand last year.
AUTOMAKERs
Suzuki finds funds for India
Suzuki Motor Corp plans to sell ¥200 billion (US$1.8 billion) of convertible bonds as the Japanese automaker raises funds to help pay for its first wholly owned factory in India. The company is to sell the instruments in two tranches, primarily to fund the plant it is building in India’s western Gujarat state, according to a statement to the Tokyo stock exchange. Suzuki said it would also use some proceeds for research and development on safety technology.
FINANCE
Mizuho and Redburn to ally
Mizuho Financial Group Inc agreed to form an alliance on European equities with Redburn Europe Ltd, a UK research and trading execution house, according to people familiar with the matter. The Japanese bank’s securities unit is to start providing its customers with Redburn’s research on European stocks, and the London-based firm is to carry out transactions for those clients, said the people, who asked not to be identified. The exclusive alliance would enable Japan’s third-largest lender by market value to expand its client base by offering research on European companies like BT Group PLC, Renault SA and Volkswagen AG and executing trades through Redburn.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks