RIDE-HAILING
Grab-Uber under scrutiny
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore proposed a set of measures to address higher fares and other adverse effects resulting from Grab’s acquisition of Uber Technologies Inc’s business in March. The Grab-Uber merger has reduced competition and led to higher prices, the watchdog said in a statement yesterday. As a result, Grab will have to abolish some driver restrictions, restore pre-merger pricing algorithms and adopt other measures, it said. Uber will have to sell Lion City Rentals to any potential competitor with a reasonable offer, it added.
ENERGY
Praxair to sell EU business
German gas giant Linde AG and US-based Praxair Inc yesterday said they had agreed to sell the US firm’s European gas business, in a concession to Brussels competition authorities probing their gigantic merger. Praxair “has signed an agreement to sell the majority of its businesses in Europe to Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp” for 5 billion euros (US$5.9 billion), it said in a statement. The units to be sold boast annual revenues of “approximately 1.3 billion euros” from operations in 12 EU countries, including France, Germany, Italy and the UK, and employ about 2,500 people, the companies said. Praxair’s deal with Taiyo Nippon Sanso will only go ahead if the European Commission approves its US$65 billion tie-up with Linde.
TECHNOLOGY
IBM partners with Australia
IBM Corp has secured a A$1 billion (US$740 million) agreement to become a central technology partner of the Australian government over the next five years. The contract will see services such as automation and blockchain provided to federal departments, including defense and home affairs, IBM Asia-Pacific head Harriet Green said yesterday. The “youth of the technology” and the employment of Australians to support and help the implementation would be hallmarks of the new partnership, she said.
LEISURE
Fosun spin-off approved
Fosun International Ltd (復星國際) received approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to spin off its tourism and hotels unit, which includes Club Med SAS, as the Chinese conglomerate seeks to expand its travel business globally. Fosun did not give a timeline for the spin-off and said that it was not assured, according to a statement to the stock exchange late on Wednesday. IFR Asia reported earlier that Fosun was aiming for a listing valued at about US$500 million.
ENERGY
Enbridge selling units
Canadian oil pipeline operator Enbridge on Wednesday announced the C$4.1 (US$3.1 billion) sale of natural gas processing and distribution units to investment fund Brookfield Infrastructure. The sale comprised 19 sites in the western provinces of British Columbia and Alberta with a capacity of 3.3 billion cubic feet of gas per day and 3,550 kilometers of pipeline, a statement by the Calgary-based group said. It must be approved by provincial authorities and the federal government, Enbridge and Brookfield said.
COMMODITIES
Glencore unveils buyback
Glencore PLC yesterday said it intends to repurchase up to US$1 billion of its stock, just days after the mining and commodities giant announced it was the target of a US corruption probe. The Swiss-based corporation said the buyback program would be implemented in two stages, ending on Dec. 31.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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