US-based investor The Carlyle Group has bought Australia’s biggest wine producer, Accolade Wines Ltd, for A$1 billion (US$768 million) as it seeks out growth opportunities in the Asian region, the firm said yesterday.
Accolade Wines, the world’s fifth-largest wine company by volume, was sold to Carlyle by Australia’s CHAMP Private Equity, which owns 80 percent in the firm, and US alcohol distributor Constellation Brands Inc.
“This is a company with great brands and strong market positions, with multiple growth opportunities, particularly in Asian markets,” Carlyle said in a statement. “We look forward to supporting Accolade Wines with Carlyle’s global resources, and investing in the business and working with staff, suppliers and customers to drive growth.”
CHAMP created Accolade Wines after buying Constellation Wines’ Australian and European units in 2011 for A$290 million, and built up the company.
Accolade Wines exports to more than 140 countries, and while it is headquartered in Australia, the business derives more than two-thirds of its earnings offshore.
The firm exports more than A$350 million of wine annually from Australia.
Carlyle is expected to continue Accolade’s push into the Asian market, particularly China, the Australian Financial Review reported yesterday.
Based in Washington, Carlyle is one of the world’s largest investment management groups, with US$178 billion in assets.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained