INDUSTRIALS
Siemens to buy Mentor
Siemens AG agreed to buy Mentor Graphics Corp for US$4.5 billion in its biggest acquisition since 2014, as the German engineering company extends its industrial software capability. Siemens is to pay US$37.25 a share for Wilsonville, Oregon-based Mentor, the industrial giant said in a statement yesterday. That is 21 percent above the closing price on Friday. Elliott Management Corp, which owns 8.1 percent of Mentor’s shares, backs the offer, Siemens said. The acquisition “will allow us to supplement our world-class industrial software portfolio,” Siemens board member Klaus Helmrich said in the statement. “It will complement our strong offering in mechanics and software with design, test and simulation of electrical and electronic systems.” Mentor is the biggest acquisition announced by Siemens since it agreed to buy Dresser-Rand Group Inc for US$7.6 billion.
FASHION
American Apparel bankrupt
American Apparel Inc filed for bankruptcy, less than a year after ending its first stint under court protection. Gildan Activewear Inc agreed to buy its intellectual property rights for about US$66 million following the filing, the Canadian company said in a statement. Gildan said American Apparel made its filing yesterday. The US clothing retailer ran into trouble just months after shedding US$200 million in debt and emerging from Chapter 11 in February. American Apparel emerged from its earlier bankruptcy after former bondholders — led by Monarch Alternative Capital — took over. As part of its previous bankruptcy, the firm closed at least 13 unprofitable locations. The goal was to operate 212 stores, which in 2014 had produced US$331 million in sales, or 54 percent of the company’s total.
ENERGY
Saudi calls for oil consensus
Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih said it was “imperative” that OPEC nations finalize an agreement over a cut in oil production aimed at boosting crude prices, Algerian media said on Sunday. Al-Falih met his Algerian counterpart, Noureddine Boutarfa, on Saturday and called on cartel members to stick to the surprise cut deal, reached in Algiers in September. “In this period marked by unstable oil prices it is imperative to reach a consensus between OPEC nations and to agree on an effective mechanism and precise figures to activate the historic Algiers accord,” al-Falih was quoted as saying by APS news agency. OPEC members agreed in September to cut the cartel’s output by 750,000 barrels per day, Bloomberg News said.
SHIPPING
Korea buys Hanjin assets
Korea Line Corp, a bulk carrier owned by the Samra Midas Group, won a bid for some assets of Hanjin Shipping Co in a bankruptcy sale supervised by a South Korean court. The company beat bigger rival Hyundai Merchant Marine Co as the preferred bidder for Hanjin’s Asia-US business, a spokesman for the Seoul Central District Court said in a text message yesterday. Final sale documents are to be signed on Tuesday next week, the court said. The acquisition will mark Korea Line’s entry into container shipping. Korea Line is expanding its business after exiting from bankruptcy protection which it filed for in 2011 amid a slump in dry-bulk shipping rates. Bought by the Samra Midas Group in 2013, it operates 29 vessels hauling goods such as iron ore, crude oil and cars. Also included in the bid was Korea Line’s interest to buy Hanjin’s 54 percent stake in a port terminal in Long Beach, California, the court said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by