Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s (李嘉誠) Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (CKI, 長江基建) has offered to buy Duet Group at a premium of about 28 percent in a bid to win control of the Australian infrastructure company’s pipeline assets, people familiar with the matter said.
The Hong Kong-based company made a conditional offer of A$3 a share for Duet last week, said the people, asking not to be identified as the details are private. The offer values Duet at about A$7.3 billion (US$5.4 billion), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The board of the Australian company plans to consider the offer, the people said. Duet shares closed at A$2.35 in Sydney on Friday.
The bid for Duet would be the latest attempt by Li to bolster his Australian business this year. The tycoon experienced a setback in August when the Australian government blocked CKI and State Grid Corp of China (國家電網) from buying a majority stake in state-owned power network Ausgrid.
Expanding his business in Australia would also help Li diversify away from the UK, the biggest profit generator for his flagship firm, CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd (長和集團).
Duet’s assets include the Dampier-Bunbury pipeline in Western Australia, a stake in electricity distributor United Energy, gas distribution business Multinet Gas, pipelines business DBP Development Group and Energy Developments Ltd, according to the Duet’s Web site.
The Australian Financial Review had reported earlier about CKI making an offer for Duet.
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