CONSTRUCTION
Interserve to retain RMDK
British construction and support services firm Interserve PLC yesterday said it had decided to retain equipment services unit RMDK as a core part of its business, following the conclusion of a strategic review that started in February. Interserve said the international business RMDK provided an “important element” of diversification for the group, which otherwise had a predominantly UK-based earnings profile and has been facing near-term uncertainty in some end markets. Interserve said it would incur nonrecurring charges of about £17 million (US$21.11 million) to carry out strategic changes at RMDK, which would include restructuring operations in a number of smaller, less attractive markets.
MACROECONICS
UK economy loses steam
Britain’s economy appears to be losing steam, with major business surveys showing a marked slowdown in the services sector and boardrooms beset by doubt about the future following the country’s vote to leave the EU. While the economy has fared better than most economists expected since June’s Brexit vote — largely thanks to upbeat consumers — yesterday’s surveys heighten concerns about its longer-term prospects. Key measures of business investment and turnover confidence hit four-year lows in the third quarter, the British Chambers of Commerce said in its Quarterly Economic Survey of 7,000 businesses — the largest of its kind. Separately, chief financial officers in major British firms reported only a partial rebound in business morale after a post-Brexit vote nosedive, accountants Deloitte reported. Investors have become increasingly concerned that Britain will lose many of the preferential trading terms it has with the EU — a so-called “hard Brexit” — pushing the pound to a fresh 31-year low against the US dollar last week.
CONSTRUCTION
Cimic eyes UGL Ltd
Cimic Group Ltd, the Australian construction company controlled by Germany’s Hochtief AG, offered to buy UGL Ltd in a deal valuing the engineering firm at A$524 million (US$397.91 million). Cimic, which took a 13.8 percent stake in Sydney-based UGL in a block-trade yesterday, offered A$3.15 per share in cash for the remaining stock, according to a statement to the stock exchange. That is 47 percent more than UGL’s last closing price on Friday. Cimic plans to delist UGL and reconstitute its board, according to the statement. It has received Foreign Investment Review Board approval for the offer, which will be funded through available funds or existing debt, Cimic said.
INVESTMENT
Bollore boosts Vivendi stake
Vincent Bollore’s investment company is increasing its stake in Vivendi SA to more than 20 percent as the billionaire tightens his grip over the French media conglomerate. Bollore Group is set to hold about 29 percent of voting rights in Vivendi by April 20 next year, taking into account the double voting rights attached to the shares it is acquiring, according to a statement yesterday. Bollore Group, based in Puteaux, France, held about 15 percent of Vivendi as of June. The activist investor, who became chairman of Vivendi in 2014, is cementing his control as he seeks to expand Paris-based Vivendi’s business beyond music, film and television. Under Bollore, Vivendi has accumulated a stake in Telecom Italia SpA and re-entered video gaming by acquiring Gameloft SE and buying a stake in Ubisoft Entertainment SA.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts