BANKING
Techcombank eyes IPO
Techcombank, the Vietnamese lender backed by Warburg Pincus, and some investors are poised to raise about 21 trillion dong (US$922 million) in a domestic initial public offering (IPO), people with knowledge of the matter said. The bank is planning to price the sale of 164.1 million shares at 128,000 dong each, the top end of a marketed range, the people said. A US$922 million deal would be Vietnam’s biggest initial equity offering ever, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Techcombank, formally known as Vietnam Technological & Commercial Joint Stock Bank, aims for its shares to begin trading on June 4.
MINERS
Glencore unit to be dissolved
Glencore PLC said the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) state-owned mining company began legal proceedings to dissolve one of its subsidiaries because of a capital shortfall. The Baar, Switzerland-based company said it has several options to remedy the deficit at Kamoto Copper Co (KCC), according to a statement issued on Sunday. Possible courses of action include the conversion of a portion of debt owed by KCC to Katanga Mining Co, the Toronto-listed company that controls KCC, or forgiving that debt, it said. Heavy levels of debt at mining companies are a heated issue in the DRC, the world’s largest source of cobalt and Africa’s biggest copper producer.
IRAN
Bitcoin banned for lenders
The government yesterday banned the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by banks and financial institutions amid ongoing debate over how best to regulate the technology. The government’s money-laundering committee had taken the decision in late December last year and it was now being put into effect, it said. The ban came because “all cryptocurrencies have the capacity to be turned into a means for money laundering and financing terrorism, and in general can be turned into a means for transferring criminals’ money,” it added. Many in the country see great potential in digital currencies as a way to overcome problems related to international sanctions and difficulties facing the country’s ailing banks.
COMPUTERS
Lenovo sinks on ZTE ban
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) sank to its lowest level since 2009 as a US ban on ZTE Corp (中興) undermined sentiment toward China’s technology sector. The company’s shares dropped 3.4 percent in Hong Kong as of 11:50am. The MSCI China Technology Index slipped 0.8 percent. ZTE shares have been suspended from trading since the US government last week imposed a seven-year ban on its purchases of crucial US components. Bears are targeting Lenovo in particular amid doubts that a company once regarded as a potential challenger to Apple Inc might not be able to revive itself.
ECONOMY
Eurozone keeps steady
Economic momentum in the eurozone kept a steady pace this month after softening earlier in the year, in a sign that growth in the region is set to continue, albeit at a slower pace. A composite Purchasing Managers’ Index remained unchanged at 55.2, IHS Markit said yesterday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted a decline to 54.8. While activity in services picked up, growth in manufacturing slowed to the weakest in more than a year. Slower growth in new orders, as well as weakened optimism about the business outlook, suggests output could decelerate further in coming months, IHS Markit said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by