POULTRY
Deal near for Moy Park
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp, the second-largest US chicken producer, is nearing a deal to acquire UK poultry provider Moy Park, people with knowledge of the matter said. The company could announce an agreement as soon as this week to buy Moy Park from JBS SA, which is also the biggest shareholder of Pilgrim’s Pride, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS said last week it was making efforts to sell Moy Park, though no final deal had been reached. It bought the business in 2015 for about US$1.5 billion including debt. Joesley and Wesley Batista, the Brazilian brothers whose family controls JBS, have been shedding assets to help pay for legal settlements after they confessed to graft and other crimes.
RETAIL
Lotte mulls China sale
South Korea’s Lotte Shopping is considering selling its supermarkets in China and other options should political tensions between Seoul and Beijing continue next year, an official at the retailer said yesterday. “It is natural that we should have various alternatives, but no discussions or decisions have been made regarding detailed plans,” the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. He did not elaborate on what other options were under consideration. China has pressured South Korean businesses via boycotts and bans since Seoul decided last year to deploy a US-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system as a deterrent to North Korea. Lotte has been among the hardest-hit firms after it provided the land where the system is installed.
CHINA
Wang Jianlin in Hong Kong
Dalian Wanda Group (萬達集團) yesterday said that its chairman Wang Jianlin (王健林) was in Hong Kong on Friday, just weeks after some media outlets said he had been stopped from leaving the mainland. Wanda said on its Web site that Wang met with former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華). Two photographs published on the Web site showed Wang and Tung standing in front of a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region logo in Tung’s office. A person with knowledge of the matter said the two are longtime friends. Wanda declined to comment on the trip.
ENVIRONMENT
Revision to emissions plan
The EU is preparing to make its emissions-trading system, the world’s largest, immune to a potential supply turmoil in the case the UK pulls out from the region’s carbon market as part of Brexit. The European Parliament is to vote tomorrow on a proposal that would prevent companies and airlines in the EU Emissions Trading System using carbon allowances issued by the UK from next year should the country decide to leave the cap-and-trade program, according to a draft document obtained by reporters. The provision, to be sponsored by four political groups, will be submitted as part of a revision of the bloc’s carbon market law to update rules on aviation.
CHINA
Chengdu back at No. 1
Sichuan Province’s Chengdu has reclaimed the top spot in a Milken Institute ranking of China’s best-performing big cities. Chongqing climbed to second place, while Guiyang, capital of poor-but-fast-growing Guizhou Province, fell from first to third, according to a report released yesterday by the Santa Monica, California-based think tank founded by Michael Milken.
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