AIRLINES
Iran to buy planes from ATR
IranAir has signed a contract to buy 20 planes from turboprop maker ATR, Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan was quoted as saying yesterday. The deal comes after Iran, which had not directly purchased a Western-built plane in nearly 40 years, signed contracts last year with Europe’s Airbus and its US rival Boeing to purchase about 180 jets. A basic deal for the purchase of 20 airplanes, with options for another 20, was reached several weeks, ago but negotiations dragged on over an agreement for maintenance and spare engines between IranAir and engine supplier Pratt & Whitney Canada, owned by US aerospace group United Technologies.
SPACE
Avio first to go public
Italian space launcher company Avio SpA has become the first in its category to go public, seeking to boost its growth ambitions. Avio, the largest satellite launcher in Europe, yesterday opened its initial public offering at a share price of 13.88 euros. The company makes engines for rockets that are used to put small satellites into low orbit in a joint venture with the Italian Space Agency. As part of the moves to help Avio grow, Italian defense contractor Leonardo has increased its stake in Avio from 14 percent to 28 percent.
EGYPT
Consumer prices stabilize
Egyptian consumer prices showed some signs of stability last month, signaling that the surge in inflation triggered by the central bank’s decision to abandon currency controls five months ago could be easing. Annual inflation in urban areas accelerated to 30.9 percent compared with 30.2 percent in February, according to data released yesterday by Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. The increase in prices has raised concerns about stability in Egypt, which is also struggling with a wave of Islamist militant attacks undermining efforts to attract investments and tourism.
INDIA
Steel output hits record high
India, set to become the world’s largest steel producer after China, churned out a record amount in the year through last month to feed rising local demand, while boosting exports to the highest ever. Output jumped 11 percent to 101.3 million tonnes and the nation was a net exporter for the first time in three years, doubling shipments to 8.2 million tonnes, according to provisional steel ministry data. The nation’s output is to rise from 103 million tonnes this year to 110 million next year, and 118 million by 2019, matching the output of Japan, according to projections from Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Stada to back acquisition
Stada Arzneimittel AG said it would back an acquisition offer from private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven for a deal that values the German drugmaker at about 5.32 billion euros (US$5.6 billion), putting an end to lengthy negotiations for one of the last independent generic-drug businesses in Europe. The firms are offering 65.28 euros plus a dividend of 0.72 euros per Stada share, the drugmaker said yesterday in a statement, about 20 percent higher than the company’s volume-weighted average share price over the past three months. The deal would give the two private equity firms access to German and Russian markets for over-the-counter and copycat medicines, and marks another step in the consolidation of the generics industry.
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
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