BANKING
US lender to sell CCB stake
Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell its stake in China Construction Bank (CCB, 中國建設銀行) to the bank, exiting an investment it made eight years ago. The US lender said it will sell approximately 2 billion shares, or 1 percent of all outstanding shares in CCB, China’s second-biggest bank, confirming earlier reports. The statement did not provide the financial details of the sale, but at a reported price range for the shares of HK$5.63 to HK$5.81, the sale would bring in between US$1.45 billion and US$1.5 billion.
CREDIT RATINGS
S&P alleges US retaliation
Standard & Poor’s says the US government sued the rating agency as “retaliation” for its downgrade of the country’s credit rating. S&P, a unit of McGraw Hill Cos, said in a court filing on Tuesday that its opinions were independent and based on a good-faith assessment of the performance of residential mortgages during a tumultuous time in the market. The US Department of Justice filed civil charges against the rating agency in February and is seeking US$5 billion in penalties. In 2011, the rating agency downgraded the US government’s long-term credit rating one notch to “AA+” following a standoff in Congress over whether to raise the US’ borrowing limit. It reaffirmed the country’s “AA+” rating in June and upgraded its outlook to “stable” from “negative.”
INTERNET
LinkedIn plans shares sale
LinkedIn Corp, the world’s biggest professional networking Web site, filed to raise about US$1 billion in a stock sale after a fivefold surge in its shares since its initial public offering in 2011. The company plans to sell 4.17 million shares of its Class A stock, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. While the price has not been determined, LinkedIn estimated it will raise US$1 billion based on a closing stock price of US$240.04 on Friday last week. The Mountain View, California-based company last raised money in November 2011 in a US$701.5 million offering. As in that sale, LinkedIn said the cash will be used for working capital, product development and possibly to make strategic acquisitions or investments.
CHINA
Services hit five-month high
Growth in China’s services sector hit a five-month high last month, underpinned by optimism over government policy measures, a private survey showed, the latest evidence that the world’s second-largest economy may have avoided a sharp slowdown. The Markit/HSBC Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) climbed to 52.8 last month, up from July’s 51.3 and the highest since March, the survey showed yesterday. The data came on the heels of three other PMI surveys this week that pointed to a pick-up in activity at factories and service firms.
COMMUNICATONS
Apple sends invitations
Apple Inc on Tuesday sent official invitations to an event on Tuesday next week at which it is expected to unveil the latest version of the iPhone, possibly in colors other than its trademark black and white. “This should brighten everyone’s day,” the typically cryptic invitation read, under a graphic depicting pastel-colored circles surrounding a stark white Apple logo. Apple said in the invitation it will host a breakfast and presentation at its Cupertino, California headquarters. The company did not specify as to what the presentation will be about.
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
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,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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