BANKING
Nikko to buy DBS Asset
Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co’s unit Nikko Asset Management Co agreed to buy DBS Asset Management (星展資金管理) from DBS Group Holdings Ltd (星展集團) for S$137 million (US$105 million) to tap business from the expanding ranks of wealthy Asians. Under the accord, DBS Asset will also take a 7.25 percent stake in Nikko Asset and the combined firm’s managed assets will total more than US$150 billion, the companies said in a joint statement filed with the Singapore stock exchange yesterday. The number of millionaires in the Asia--Pacific region reached 3 million last year, matching those in Europe for the first time, a June report by Capgemini and Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch unit said. Asian millionaires’ assets rose 31 percent to US$9.7 trillion, the study showed.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Pfizer CEO steps down
Pfizer Inc’s chief executive has stepped down without warning, acknowledging the personal toll involved in steering the world’s largest drugmaker through a multibillion-dollar merger. The departure of Jeffrey Kindler, 55, comes more than a year after Pfizer completed the signature move of his tenure — the US$67 billion acquisition of rival Wyeth. However, he leaves before the company confronts the US patent expiration of its top-selling Lipitor cholesterol medicine.
ELECTRONICS
Rare-earth extractor coming
Hitachi Ltd has developed machinery to harvest rare earth metals from discarded hard-disk drives and compressors as electronics makers seek to reduce their reliance on Chinese supply. The machine can extract 100 rare earth magnets from hard disk drives per hour, about eight times faster than manual labor, Tokyo-based Hitachi said in a statement yesterday. The company plans to get 10 percent of its rare-earth needs through recycling when the business begins operating in fiscal 2013, Satoko Yasunaga said.
AIRLINES
Cathay Pacific CEO named
Airline Cathay Pacific has announced that chief operating officer John Slosar will take over as chief executive next year when current head Tony Tyler leaves to head the industry lobby group IATA. In a press release, the Hong Kong flag carrier said Slosar would take up the post after Tyler steps down on March 31 next year. Slosar, 54, was managing director of parent company Swire Pacific’s beverage division before joining Cathay in 2007.
AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai halts Ulsan plant
Hyundai Motor Co stopped production at its plant in Ulsan, South Korea, yesterday because of worker unrest, less than four hours after a three-week shutdown ended. Hyundai, based in Seoul, initially stopped manufacturing at the plant on Nov. 15 after the workers began a sit-in demanding they be made permanent employees. Hyundai resumed plant operations at 50 percent of capacity at 8am yesterday even as the sit-in continued.
SERVICES
Philippines top call-center
The Philippines has become the call-center capital of the world, overtaking India as the No. 1 player in the global business outsourcing market, according to industry data and the government. Philippine President Benigno Aquino forecast last week that the industry’s revenues would hit US$12 billion to US$13 billion next year, rising to US$100 billion by 2020 to account for a fifth of the global market.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
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