Sweden’s Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) hygiene and forest products group yesterday announced a public cash offer for Vinda International Holdings Ltd (維達) that values the Chinese maker of tissues at 9.4 billion kronor (US$1.4 billion).
SCA, which is the second-largest shareholder in Hong Kong-listed Vinda with a 21.7 percent stake, said it was making the cash offer of HK$11.00 per share contingent on acquiring a majority holding.
The Swedish company, the maker of Tempo tissues, said Vinda is the third-largest tissue company in China, which represents the world’s second-largest tissue market.
“Vinda is a strong player in the Chinese tissue market and has demonstrated healthy growth and profitability,” SCA chief executive Jan Johansson said in a statement. “As a majority shareholder, we would see the potential to further strengthen the company to ensure its future competitiveness.”
SCA said Vinda posted sales of approximately US$750,000 and had an operating margin of 12.9 percent.
The prospectus should be presented and the offer formally launched by no later than Sept. 30, and if the offer is successful Vinda will remain listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, SCA added.
SCA, also Europe’s biggest private forest owner, is seeking acquisitions globally and has as much as 9 billion kronor to spend on purchases, Johansson said in January.
The Swedish company began a major restructuring of its operations last year, focusing more on paper hygiene products with the purchase of the European activities of the US company Georgia-Pacific.
The Vinda offer is a continuation of its expansion into Asian markets after its recent acquisition of Taiwanese hygiene products manufacturer Everbeauty Corp (全日美實業).
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
RSS