ENERGY
Indonesia wins EU dispute
Indonesia has won an appeal against the EU in a dispute over an anti-dumping duty on biodiesel, the Ministry of Trade said in a statement yesterday. The European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, ruled that the bloc must do away with anti-dumping duties of between 8.8 and 23.3 percent on imports of Indonesian biodiesel products. Indonesian Foreign Trade Director-General Oke Nurwan said the elimination of duties took effect on Friday last week.
INTERNET
Phone brands vs WeChat
China’s biggest smartphone vendors are getting together for a software platform offering access to apps that can provide an alternative for WeChat’s (微信) more than 1 billion users. Huawei Technologies Co (華為), Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀), Vivo Communication Technology Co (維沃) and Xiaomi Corp (小米) are teaming up with six smaller brands for Quick App, which lets users access a range of services, including mobile payments. That is a direct challenge to the mini programs of WeChat, which lets users order food and rent bikes without ever leaving the app.
RETAIL
Nordstrom ends buyout talks
Department store operator Nordstrom on Tuesday said it has ended buyout talks with family members of the company’s founder. Nordstrom had rejected an offer of US$50 a share earlier this month from the family group — which includes high-level company executives — and called the price “inadequate.” The family members include copresidents Blake, Peter and Erik Nordstrom, who are descendants of John Nordstrom. Together, they have a stake of about 30 percent in the company, according to FactSet.
SOFTWARE
Salesforce buys MuleSoft
Salesforce Inc agreed to buy MuleSoft Inc for about US$6.5 billion in its largest-ever acquisition, as the market leader in customer-relationship software makes an aggressive play for new products and corporate users. San Francisco-based Salesforce is paying US$36 in cash and 0.0711 shares of its common stock for each MuleSoft share, it said in a statement.That is 36 percent more than MuleSoft’s closing share price on Monday. Salesforce said the US$6.5 billion total price represents MuleSoft’s enterprise value. The deal is scheduled to close by July 31
LUXURY GOODS
Hermes announces dividend
Hermes International, flush with cash from surging sales of US$10,000 handbags, is giving a chunk of it back to shareholders. The French luxury goods house yesterday said it would pay an annual dividend of 4.10 euros a share along with a special payout of 5 euros a share. Its cash holdings reached almost 3 billion euros (US$3.7 billion) as of Dec. 31 last year. The maker of Birkin and Kelly bags said in a statement its operating margin rose 2 percentage points to 34.6 percent.
FOOD
HelloFresh buys Green Chef
HelloFresh SE, the German meal-kit company, has agreed to buy competitor Green Chef as it seeks to challenge industry-pioneer Blue Apron for supremacy in the US. The deal was announced in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that did not include terms. Green Chef is expected to contribute about US$15 million in quarterly revenue, starting in the second quarter, according to the filing. HelloFresh said it expects to turn a profit this year and pass industry pioneer Blue Apron in US sales.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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