FINANCE
ING plans to repay aid
ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch financial-services company, plans to repay 2 billion euros (US$2.8 billion) of state aid in May at a 50 percent premium. “ING will fund this repurchase from retained earnings,” the Amsterdam-based bank and insurer said yesterday. The company plans to buy back the core Tier 1 securities sold to the state at the next coupon reset date on May 13, it said. ING received 10 billion euros of state aid in 2008 and also transferred the risk on 21.6 billion euros of US mortgage assets. The firm paid back 5 billion euros in December 2009 and CEO Jan Hommen said on Feb. 16 he’s “quite hopeful that we can repay the Dutch state to a significant amount this year.” “The strong recovery of the banking business in 2010 has enabled us to accelerate the repurchase of the core Tier 1 securities from retained earnings, while maintaining a robust capital position post repayment,” Hommen said in the statement.
RETAILERS
LVMH to control Bulgari
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world’s leading luxury retailer, said yesterday it will take control of Italian top-end jeweler Bulgari SpA in a deal worth nearly 2 billion euros. An accord reached with the controlling Bulgari family for the company, founded in 1884, will see LVMH issue 16.5 million shares to them for their 51 percent holding in a deal valued at 1.84 billion euros. LVMH would also offer other Bulgari shareholders 12.25 euros a share, with this part of the deal potentially worth another 1.79 billion euros if all the outstanding shares are acquired. In turn, Bulgari would become the second-largest family shareholder in the LVMH group, taking two seats on the board. LVMH group recently bought a large stake in smaller French rival Hermes International SA, but has insisted that speculation it wants to ultimately control that company is without foundation.
FINANCE
LSE eyes NASDAQ takeover
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is eyeing a takeover of its US rival NASDAQ just weeks after announcing a merger with the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Sunday Times reported. Although the companies have not held talks about a three-way tie-up, LSE and its Canadian counterpart expect to make their move later this year following the closing of their own deal, the newspaper said. A NASDAQ spokesman declined to comment. For now, LSE has its hands full as it tries to close on its ￡3.1 billion (US$5 billion) proposed takeover of TMX Group Inc. Last week the two exchanges defended their transatlantic tie-up to skeptical lawmakers as they faced the first of a series of government and regulatory hurdles.
VIETNAM
Foreign money loans curbed
Commercial lenders will be ordered to limit their loans made in foreign currencies as policymakers seek to narrow the nation’s trade deficit and stabilize its exchange rate, a central bank official said. Priority for the loans will be given to export companies that have foreign-currency resources to repay banks and importers of essential goods that aren’t produced domestically, the official said on condition of anonymity because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media. Tuoi Tre newspaper reported earlier yesterday that the central bank planned to limit the number of companies allowed to borrow in currencies other than the dong. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s government is struggling to contain inflation pressures and a trade gap that reached US$12.4 billion last year, undermining the dong.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
CHIP HANG-UP: Surging memorychip prices would deal a blow to smartphone sales this year, potentially hindering one of MediaTek’s biggest sources of revenue MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip designer, yesterday said its new artificial intelligence (AI) chips used in data centers are to account for 20 percent of its total revenue next year, as cloud service providers race to deploy AI infrastructure to meet voracious demand. MediaTek is believed to be developing tensor processing units for Google, which are used in AI applications. While it did not confirm such reports, MediaTek said its new application-specific IC (ASIC) business would be a new growth engine for the company. It again hiked its forecast for the addressable ASIC market to US$70 billion by 2028, compared
SIGNS OF STABILITY: With US tariff risks to GDP subsiding, reliable economic conditions are expected to reinforce the bank operating environment, Fitch said Fitch Ratings has upgraded the outlook for Taiwan’s banking sector to “neutral” from “deteriorating,” citing a tariff agreement with the US that has reduced uncertainty in Taiwan’s macroeconomic environment and stabilized financial performance. The US on Jan. 15 agreed to lower tariffs on Taiwanese goods from 20 percent to 15 percent, without stacking them on existing most-favored-nation rates, placing Taiwan on equal footing with major competitors such as Japan, South Korea and the EU. The deal also grants Taiwan-made semiconductors and related products most-favorable-nation treatment under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act. Under the agreement, Taiwanese semiconductor, electronics manufacturing service, artificial
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