BANKING
EU, Portugal reach deal
The European Commission and Portugal on Wednesday said they have agreed on a 5 billion euro (US$5.64 billion) deal to recapitalize the state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos bank, including through a 2.7 billion euro injection of state funds. The deal was provisionally approved by European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager to meet the 28-nation bloc’s tough rules on preventing unfair government aid for businesses.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AZ to sell antibiotics arm
British drugs giant AstraZeneca (AZ) PLC on Wednesday agreed to sell part of its antibiotics business to US giant Pfizer Inc for up to US$1.6 billion. The deal for the company’s small-molecule antibiotics, or those developed using traditional chemistry, is expected to complete in the fourth quarter, AstraZeneca said in a statement. The news comes days after Pfizer bought San Francisco-based biotech firm Medivation Inc — which specializes in cancer treatments — for US$14 billion.
SOVEREIGN FUNDS
QIA buys iconic stake in US
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has made an iconic purchase in the US — a stake in the company that owns New York’s Empire State Building. The Empire State Realty Trust Inc, which manages the building, said late on Tuesday that the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) purchased a 9.9 percent stake in the company for US$622 million. The QIA’s existing US holdings include a more than 10 percent stake in New York-based luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co.
STOCKS
CNOOC stock drops on loss
China’s main offshore oil and gas producer, CNOOC Ltd (中國海洋石油), saw its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange fall yesterday, after it reported a US$1.16 billion net loss for the first half. It was the company’s first half-year loss since it started trading on the Hong Kong exchange in 2000, with CNOOC blaming low oil prices and write-downs on assets for its performance. CNOOC posted a net loss for the six months ending June 30 of 7.74 billion yuan (US$1.16 billion), alongside a 25.4 percent drop in revenue to 66.83 billion yuan.
TECHNOLOGY
HP downbeat on Q4
HP Inc, which sells personal computers and printers, forecast its fiscal fourth-quarter profit might fall short of analysts’ estimates, hurt by slumping demand for its products. Profit from continuing operations, excluding some items, will be US$0.34 to US$0.37 per share in the current quarter, HP said on Wednesday. That would fall short of analysts’ projections of US$0.40. The company reported profit, before certain items, of US$0.48 per share in the third quarter ended July 31, topping analysts’ estimates of US$0.45. Sales fell 3.8 percent to US$11.9 billion, compared with estimates of US$11.5 billion.
COMMODITIES
South32 earnings surprise
South32 Ltd, the world’s biggest manganese producer, is to pay its inaugural dividend and said it is monitoring two potential investment opportunities after reporting full-year earnings that beat analysts’ estimates. A decline in commodity prices saw underlying earnings fall 76 percent to US$138 million in the year ended June 30, down from a pro-forma US$575 million in the same period last year, the Perth-based company said yesterday. That exceeded the US$111 million average of 18 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. It will pay a final dividend of US$0.01 per share.
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
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
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