COFFEEHOUSES
China cafe chain eyes IPO
Luckin Coffee (瑞幸咖啡), an ambitious Chinese start-up rolling out thousands of stores to take on Starbucks Corp, is beginning preparations for a US initial public offering (IPO) that could raise US$300 million, people with knowledge of the matter said. Luckin is spending heavily to roll out 2,500 additional stores this year, after the company opened about 2,000 outlets last year in its first year of operation. It is putting pressure on Starbucks, which has made China into its fastest-growing market and the second-biggest among more than 50 countries in which it operates. The Chinese firm hopes its focus on convenience and affordability will lure urban office workers. Luckin was most recently valued at US$2.2 billion.
WHOLESALERS
Metro to sell China business
German food wholesaler Metro AG is considering selling a majority of its business in China to a local bidder, people familiar with the matter said. The company is willing to sell as much as 80 percent, while retaining a significant minority if an attractive offer is made, the people said, asking not to be identified. The sale is expected to start this or next month, they said. The company has finished a review at its Chinese operations, which started in June last year, and has decided to sell control to a domestic partner, they said. Metro’s Cash & Carry business in China spans 95 stores and reported revenue of 2.7 billion euros (US$3.1 billion) in the 2017-to-2018 financial year, it said on its Web site.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla specifies job cuts
Tesla Inc notified California that the job cuts Elon Musk announced earlier this month would include more than 1,000 workers in the automaker’s home state. The positions being eliminated include 802 at Tesla’s Fremont assembly plant, 137 at a facility in nearby Lathrop and 78 at its headquarters in Palo Alto, it said in notices filed this week with California. It was the second major round of reductions in a seven-month span. During a quarterly earnings call on Wednesday, Musk said that Tesla would be focusing on cutting costs as it brings cheaper versions of the Model 3 to market.
APPAREL
Chinese group buys Lycra
Chinese luxury apparel firm Shandong Ruyi Group (山東如意控股集團) finally closed its acquisition of the owner of Lycra, the elastic material used in yoga pants and skinny jeans, after regulatory delays hampered the cross-border purchase for months. The Chinese group on Thursday announced that it completed its purchase of the Apparel and Advanced Textiles business of Invista, a subsidiary of Kansas-based Koch Industries. The deal took over six months longer than expected, in part because Chinese capital controls made it difficult to move funds offshore, people familiar with the matter said. The regulatory approval process in China and the US also took longer than expected, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
ELECTRONICS
Electrolux to close US site
Swedish appliance maker Electrolux on Thursday said it plans to stop production within two years at its factory in Memphis, Tennessee, while investing US$250 million in a separate facility in the state. The maker of Frigidaire products said it is consolidating all US cooking manufacturing into its facility in Springfield, Tennessee. The company in March last year said that it was putting its plant expansion in Springfield on hold, citing US tariff worries as the reason.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”