LUXURY GOODS
Chinese firm buys Baccarat
French crystal maker Baccarat is changing hands 253 years after it was founded by royal decree of King Louis XV. Chinese investment firm Fortune Fountain Capital Ltd (灃沅弘集團) is buying a controlling stake from Baccarat’s private equity owners for about 164 million euros (US$184 million), it said in a statement yesterday. The deal ends more than a decade of ownership by Starwood Capital, which took over the brand from the Taittinger family in 2005. Baccarat is known for sets of champagne glasses that cost as much as US$990 and chandeliers that can cost thousands. Fortune Fountain agreed to buy an 88.8 percent stake from Starwood and L Catterton for 222.70 euros a share. The price is 14 percent less than Thursday’s closing share price for Baccarat, which has risen about 19 percent in the past two weeks on speculation of a possible takeover.
AUTOMAKERS
US car sales down in May
Automakers offered big discounts over the US Memorial Day holiday, but the response from car buyers last month was not enough to reverse months of sales declines. Monthly sales data showed the industry sold 6 percent fewer vehicles than in April and 1 percent fewer than in May last year, with a total of 1.5 million vehicles, according to Autodata. Total sales last month fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16.58 million units, compared with 17.17 million a year ago, Autodata reported. General Motors Co saw its sales fall 1.3 percent last month compared with a year earlier, while the North American arm of Fiat Chrysler saw a 1 percent decline and Toyota Motor Corp sales fell 0.5 percent.
FINANCE
Metro buys UK mortgages
British lender Metro Bank PLC said it had bought a portfolio of UK mortgages from a company owned by Cerberus Capital Management LP for £596.7 million (US$768.2 million). Metro Bank, which offers retail, business and private banking, said all lending in the portfolio is secured on property and has a similar credit risk profile to its current mortgage book. The portfolio bought from Cerberus European Residential Holdings BV is made up primarily of buy-to-let mortgages, with the rest being owner-occupied. The acquisition of the mortgages is to be financed using cash from existing resources, Metro said.
BRAZIL
First-quarter GDP up 1%
The government on Thursday said that GDP expanded 1 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter. The result published by the statistics bureau prompted President Michel Temer to tweet that the nation’s worst recession in decades is over. The bureau said it was the first time in eight consecutive quarters that GDP has grown. It said record grain harvests boosted the economy in the first three months of the year, with GDP reaching about US$500 billion.
SERVICES
Blue Apron files for IPO
Meal-kit delivery company Blue Apron Holdings Inc filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, after reportedly delaying listing plans while it worked on improving financials. The New York-based firm filed with an initial offering size of US$100 million, which is a placeholder used to calculate fees that will typically change, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The company plans to offer its Class A common stock and will have three classes of shares — two of them with voting rights — after the IPO.
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
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
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks