FOOD AND BEVERAGE
AB InBev ditches HK listing
The company that makes Stella Artois and Budweiser has scrapped its planned listing in Hong Kong, canceling what would have been the world’s largest initial public offering this year. Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (AB InBev), the world’s biggest brewer, had hoped to raise almost US$10 billion from listing its Asia-Pacific subsidiary Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Ltd. “The company is not proceeding with this transaction due to several factors, including the prevailing market conditions,” Belgium-based AB InBev said in a statement on Friday. The company’s shares fell as much as 2.8 percent early yesterday in Brussels.
INDIA
Ministry may split gas utility
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is considering a plan to spin off the gas transmission business of GAIL India Ltd, the nation’s largest gas utility, into a separate unit, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is seeking approval from the cabinet for splitting the transmission business from the gas marketing operations, the people said. GAIL has appointed an international consultant to determine tax implications after the restructuring, they said. A ministry spokesman declined to comment.
GERMANY
Economic weakness forecast
Industrial activity is sluggish and recent data point to slower growth in the service sector, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy said, adding that this suggested Europe’s largest economy would experience a weak general economic trend in the second quarter. “After what is shaping up to be a subdued development in the second quarter, the forces of economic upswing could become more prominent again if the external environment settles,” the ministry said in its monthly report published yesterday. However, it added that there were significant downside risks such as trade conflicts, Britain’s expected departure from the EU and geopolitical tensions.
RETAIL
Barneys mulls bankruptcy
Luxury department store Barneys New York is considering filing for bankruptcy, Reuters reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The retailer is working with Kirkland & Ellis LLP to prepare for a potential bankruptcy that could come in the coming weeks, Reuters cited one of the people as saying. Barneys has not yet made a final decision and is weighing other solutions. “Our board and management are actively evaluating opportunities to strengthen our balance sheet and ensure the sustainable, long-term growth and success of our business,” a company spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.
INSURANCE
AMP deal falls apart
Australian wealth manager AMP Ltd’s planned overhaul of its scandal-hit business is in tatters after the A$3.3 billion (US$2.3 billion) sale of its life unit collapsed. The 170-year-old firm yesterday said that the deal with UK-based Resolution Life is “highly unlikely to proceed,” because of challenges in meeting conditions imposed by New Zealand’s central bank. AMP shares slumped as much as 18 percent in Sydney trading, hitting a record low of A$1.77. The stock has slumped 50 percent in the past year, slicing the company’s market value to A$5.3 billion. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will not approve the deal unless Resolution Life agrees to have separate, ring-fenced assets held in New Zealand for the benefit of policyholders there.
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
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
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts