A Chinese tycoon has been quietly buying up shares in Italian fashion house Prada SpA in a bid to become the biggest shareholder, his company said yesterday but Prada in Italy denied this as being completely unfounded.
Lu Qiang’s (陸強) bid was reported by China’s Economic Observer newspaper yesterday.
However, Lu, chairman of Shanghai-based fashion factory outlet Foxtown (東方狐狸城) may abandon the plans, saying Prada had raised its price for the additional stake after learning of his involvement.
“We had not planned to make the bid public. But somehow one media got the news and had a report on this. The price then became very high and therefore we are considering dropping the idea,” a FoxTown spokeswoman told reporters.
The newspaper said Lu had indirectly acquired 13 percent of Prada over the past two years and aimed to become its biggest shareholder with the planned acquisition of an additional stake of up to 20 percent.
In Italy, a Prada executive, who declined to be named, told reporters that the assertion by Lu that he had bought 13 percent of the business was “totally unfounded.”
“No member of the Prada family has sold shares to Lu Qiang,” the executive said, adding that of the capital “94.89 percent is held by the Prada family and Mr Bertelli, husband of Miucha Prada, and 5.11 percent by the Intesa Sanpaulo bank.”
In Shanghai, the newspaper report said Lu had been buying shares through an unidentified Italian consulting firm, which he had acquired for 20 million euros (US$25 million).
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the