TRANSPORTATION
Uber increases bond offering
Uber Technologies Inc increased the size of its debut bond offering as orders for the private placement swelled in a market hungry for deals, people with knowledge of the sale said. The ride-hailing firm set final terms for the debt, including a US$1.5 billion portion of eight-year bonds and US$500 million of five-year securities, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Uber is wrapping up the deal after Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc told the firm that it could be valued at about US$120 billion in an initial public offering next year, people with knowledge of those discussions told reporters earlier yesterday. While chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi has said that the company is planning to go public in the second half of next year, Uber is now considering doing so earlier.
SEMICONDUCTORS
New orders raise ASML sales
Fourth-quarter sales and profit forecasts at ASML Holding NV, Europe’s largest semiconductor equipment maker, beat analyst expectations as the chip industry bellwether announced five new orders for its newest lithography machines in the third quarter. The company forecast sales of 3 billion euros (US$3.47 billion) for the fourth quarter, compared with an average analyst estimate of 2.9 billion euros, and gross margin of about 48 percent, beating the average estimate of 45.3 percent. The forecast “gets us for the full year to approximately 11 billion euros, which again is a record year for ASML,” chief financial officer Roger Dassen said in a video statement. Third-quarter sales came in at 2.78 billion euros, just beating the average analyst estimate of 2.75 billion euros.
AUTOMAKERS
September sales in EU fall
Car sales last month slumped across Europe, weakening after a sales binge before new emissions tests came into force, industry data published yesterday showed. Concern over the new tests knocked Volkswagen (VW) out of its traditional top spot in monthly sales. At 1.09 million, passenger car sales last month were down 23.5 percent in the EU compared with a year earlier, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said in a statement. Sales had jumped by nearly one-third in August, traditionally a soft month for car sales as many Europeans are on vacation, as carmakers discounted vehicles that had not been certified using the new emissions test. Sales of VW’s own-brand cars were down 52 percent, while luxury subsidiary Porsche saw a near 70 percent collapse.
REAL ESTATE
People fear losing homes
Tens of millions of people worldwide fear losing their homes and land in the next five years, a survey of 15 nations released yesterday showed. A lack of formal documentation and poor implementation of land laws threaten tenure in many nations, researchers and policymakers said at a presentation of the Global Property Rights Index, which gauges citizens’ perceptions. “Around the world more than 40 million people worry that their home or place of work will be taken from them,” said Anna Locke from the Overseas Development Institute, a British think tank that is involved in the index, at a launch event in Rome, Italy. “This will affect the way they behave, and their countries’ overall development prospects.” Overall, one in four respondents feared their property being taken away.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in