TRANSPORTATION
CMA CGM hits NOL goal
French transport company CMA CGM SA on Monday said it had achieved its goal of acquiring 90 percent of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL), as it seeks to cement its position as a global leader in container shipping. Marseille, France-based CMA CGM said it intended to delist remaining NOL shares from trading on the Singapore stock exchange. “With the public float of NOL shares now falling below the minimum threshold of 10 percent, the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited may suspend the trading of NOL shares at the close of the offer,” CMA CGM said in a statement. The acquisition of NOL allows CMA CGM to consolidate its position at the global level, with a market share of about 11.5 percent, 540 ships and turnover of 19 billion euros (US$21 billion).
VIETNAM
Drought slows GDP growth
Economic growth in the nation was little changed in the second quarter as a crippling drought hurt farming output. GDP rose 5.6 percent from a year earlier after expanding 5.5 percent in the previous three months, the General Statistics Office said in a statement yesterday. The economy expanded 5.52 percent in the first half of this year, lower than the 5.8 percent median estimate of four economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The nation is the world’s biggest producer of robusta coffee and the worst drought in three decades will probably cut next season’s crop to the lowest in four years, according to a Bloomberg survey. The nation is also an exporter of rice. Agriculture output dropped 0.8 percent in the first six months of the year compared with the same period last year, the statistics office said.
CHEMICALS
Merger hits anti-trust snag
Superior Plus Corp’s bid to merge with rival Canexus Corp faces a challenge from the US Federal Trade Commission over concerns that the combination would reduce competition in North America for a compound used in making paper, tissue and diapers. Superior and Canexus are two of the three largest producers of sodium chlorate, used as a bleaching agent, the commission said on Monday in a statement. “By combining more than half of all North American sodium chlorate production capacity in the merged Superior and Canexus, the acquisition is likely to lead to anti-competitive reductions in output and higher prices,” the commission said in the statement. Superior supplies sodium chlorate to the pulp and paper industry, as well as supplying propane and distributing industrial insulation.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Mayne to buy Teva generics
Australia’s Mayne Pharma Group Ltd agreed to buy a basket of generic drugs from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Allergan Plc for US$652 million, as the two larger companies divest products to gain anti-trust approval for their own deal. Mayne Pharma is to acquire 37 marketed drugs and five that are in development, according to a filing yesterday. The acquired products are expected to generate sales of US$237 million next year, the company said. Mayne Pharma is to fund the acquisition by extending an existing debt facility and by selling about A$888 million (US$657.9 million) in shares, the statement said. Teva and Allergan have been selling assets to facilitate Teva’s US$40.5 billion purchase of Allergan’s generics business, which the companies have said would close by the end of this month. Anti-trust regulators are requiring the divestitures as a condition of approving the Teva-Allergan deal.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained