HEALTHCARE
Novartis to take over Alcon
Novartis AG will take full control of Alcon Inc after agreeing to pay US$12.9 billion for stock of the eye-care company it doesn’t already own, ending an 11-month dispute with minority shareholders. The payment will be a combination of Novartis shares and, if necessary, a cash value to result in a total of US$168 a share, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said yesterday in a statement. Alcon’s Independent Director Committee recommended approval of the merger agreement to the Alcon board, Novartis said. The Swiss drugmaker in January exercised an option to buy Nestle SA’s 52 percent stake in Alcon for an average of US$180 a share in cash, giving it 77 percent of the company. It also offered to purchase stock held by the public at a lower price.
ENERGY
Indian firm buys coal mine
An Indian infrastructure company has bought a thermal coal mine in Australia in one of India’s largest-ever investments in the country. The company, Lanco Infratech, said yesterday it had reached a binding purchase agreement with the administrator of the failed Griffin Coal company that operated the mine in Western Australia state. It didn’t disclose a price. The coal will fuel power stations in fast-growing India. The Australian newspaper without citing a source said Lanco paid up to A$850 million (US$850 million), beating out rival bidders from Japan and China.
ENERGY
TRU to buy Aussie assets
Hong Kong utility CLP Holdings Ltd said yesterday that its Australian subsidiary is buying energy assets from the New South Wales state government for A$2 billion (US$2 billion). CLP said its Australian unit, TRUenergy, agreed to buy state-owned EnergyAustralia’s energy retailing business, electricity trading rights for state-owned Delta Electricity’s coal fired power stations and development sites for three future power station projects. CLP said in a statement that the deal is expected to be completed by March. It will more than double TRUenergy’s customers in Australia to 2.76 million and double the company’s power generation capacity in the country to 5,446 megawatts from 3,046MW currently.
APPLIANCES
Electrolux to cut 2,100 jobs
Swedish appliance maker Electrolux AB says it plans to cut 2,100 jobs in Europe and Canada in the next three years as it continues to trim its costs. The Stockholm-headquartered group will close a cooking product plant in l’Assomption, Quebec, at the end of 2013. The plant has 1,300 staff and production from it will instead be transferred to a new facility, starting in 2012. The company also says it plans to lay off 800 employees in Europe next year and in 2012. The staff cuts will be made within its Major Appliances industrial operations, but will lead to no factory closures.
BANKING
RBS to transfer clients
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will transfer its retail and commercial banking clients in three of China’s largest cities to Singapore’s DBS Bank, it was announced yesterday. Under an agreement between the two lenders, an estimated 25,000 RBS customers in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen will be given the option to transfer their accounts to DBS, the Singapore bank said in a statement. It said the transfer process was expected to be completed within six months, and some employees would also move as part of the deal.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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