KKR & Co has been given approval to acquire LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化工), the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Friday, saying it did not expect competition issues to arise from the deal.
KKR is a multinational investment firm that has a big portfolio, particularly in financial assets, while LCY Chemical produces mainly rubber items, solvents and high-performance plastics, the commission said in a statement.
The deal would allow KKR to diversify its portfolio and is not expected pose any threats to competition in the chemical product market, the commission said, adding that the economic benefits would outweigh any negative factors.
LCY Chemical in July announced that KKR would buy all outstanding LCY shares for NT$47.8 billion (US$1.55 billion), or NT$56 per share, through its Luxembourg-based unit LuxCo.
The acquisition includes a cash dividend of NT$2.9 for LCY Chemical shareholders, which would bring the full price of the deal to NT$53.1 per share, LCY Chemical said.
With the acquisition, KKR would become the only shareholder in the Taiwanese firm, but is to enter a joint venture with the family of former LCY Chemical chairman Bowei Lee (李謀偉).
The Lee family, which is now the biggest LCY Chemical shareholder, with a 27.8 percent stake, will take a 45 percent share in the joint venture, while KKR will hold 55 percent, the commission said.
Lee resigned as chairman of LCY Chemical following a series of gas explosions in Kaohsiung in 2014 that killed 32 people.
Since then, LCY Chemical has recovered and become profitable again because of its solid fundamentals, reporting earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.79 in the first half of the year.
The company posted EPS of NT$4.2 last year and NT$4.65 in 2016.
In September, LCY Chemical said it would delist from the Taiwan Stock Exchange after its acquisition by KKR, but would seek to list again in five years’ time.
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