ELECTRONICS
Thermo Fisher to buy FEI
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is to buy FEI Co for about US$4.2 billion, the latest deal by the diagnostics and research equipment company in a campaign of acquisition to beef up its suite of testing and technology services. Thermo Fisher will pay US$107.5 per share in cash and the deal is expected to close early next year, the companies said in a statement on Friday. FEI produces electron microscopes which are used to analyze proteins, giving Waltham, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher a complementary product line to its mass spectrometry systems.
MACHINERY
CRRC to raise US$1.8bn
CRRC Corp (中國中車), China’s only maker of high-speed locomotives, plans to raise as much as 12 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) in a private share sale in Shanghai to repay debt and to help finance its daily operations. The company’s board has approved the sale of as many as 1.39 billion yuan-denominated A shares at 8.66 yuan apiece, CRRC said in a filing to the Shanghai exchange on Friday. That is a 4.8 percent discount to the last close. Home to the world’s biggest high-speed rail network, China has identified the sector as one of 10 focus industries in a blueprint for economic development.
DRUGMAKERS
Bayer to choose banks
Bayer AG is close to choosing banks to arrange funds for its proposed acquisition of Monsanto Co, according to people familiar with the matter, after the US company rejected the initial US$62 billion bid as too low and sought reassurances on the potential financing. Bayer will probably raise more than US$40 billion in short-term bridge financing and most of the remainder in term loans, the people said. The German company interviewed lenders at its headquarters in Leverkusen this week and is likely to select about half a dozen banks next week, the people said.
STOCK MARKET
TCI Fund supports LSE bid
Activist investor TCI Fund Management supports Deutsche Boerse AG’s proposed takeover of London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE), clarifying the motives behind the fund’s purchase of a sizable stake in the British company. “We support it,” Christopher Hohn, the founder of TCI, told the German magazine Der Spiegel. TCI holds a 4.25 percent stake in LSE, making the hedge fund the sixth-largest shareholder in LSE. In a letter to investors, Hohn said he is confident that both managements will “bend over backwards” to get regulatory approval for the deal.
LAW FIRMS
Mossack Fonseca downsizes
The law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers revelations is closing its offices in the British-dependent territories of Jersey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar, it tweeted on Friday. Mossack Fonseca “will be ceasing operations” in those territories, “but we will continue serving all of our clients,” it said. “This decision has been taken with great regret, as Mossack Fonseca has had a presence in these locations for more than 20 years,” the Panama-based law firm added. The office closures were part of a strategy to “consolidate our service office network,” it said.
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