PORT OPERATORS
Westports launches IPO
Malaysia’s Westports Holdings Bhd started taking orders yesterday for a US$630 million initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to be one of the country’s biggest share sales this year. Westports said in a statement that it is offering 813.2 million shares at a price of up to 2.50 ringgit. The listing on the Malaysian Stock Exchange has been scheduled for Oct. 18, said the company, which manages the shipping terminal at the country’s main port of Klang and is partly owned by Asia’s richest man, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠). Up to 710.9 million shares are to be offered to institutional investors, while the rest has been earmarked for the public.
JAPAN
Trade deficit swells
The nation’s trade deficit swelled to a larger-than-forecast ￥960.3 billion (US$9.8 billion) last month as imports outpaced the growth in exports. Boosted by higher fuel costs, imports rose 16 percent from a year earlier to ￥6.74 trillion, while exports climbed 14.7 percent to ￥5.78 trillion. The deficit was a quarter bigger than the ￥768.4 billion gap seen in August last year. Japan’s trade accounts fell into deficit as costs for importing crude oil and natural gas soared following the closure of nuclear plants after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
UNITED STATES
SEC seeking CEO pay data
Regulators proposed a new rule on Wednesday to force companies to reveal how much their chief executives are paid in relation to other employees. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted 3-2 in favor of the proposed measure, which was mandated in the Dodd-Frank Act, the vast financial regulation overhaul approved in 2010 following the Wall Street crisis. Public companies are already required to disclose the compensation of their chief executives and other executive officers to the SEC. The commission announced a 60-day period for receiving comments on the proposal, before deciding whether to implement it.
FAST FOOD
McDonald’s ups its dividend
McDonald’s Corp is raising its quarterly cash dividend by 5 percent, bringing its fourth-quarter payout to more than US$800 million. The world’s largest hamburger chain said its quarterly dividend would increase to US$0.81 from US$0.77 for an annual total of US$3.24 per share. It will make the next payout on Dec. 16 to shareholders of record at Dec. 2. McDonald’s expects to return between US$4.5 billion and US$5 billion to its shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases this year. McDonald’s has raised its dividend every year since making its first payout in 1976. In July, the company reported a 4 percent rise in second-quarter profit, but missed expectations and warned of a tough year ahead,.
SOFTWARE
Oracle profit beats forecasts
Higher software revenue helped lift Oracle Corp’s fiscal first-quarter net income by 8 percent. The business software maker’s adjusted profit beat Wall Street forecasts, while its revenue fell short. For the quarter ended Aug. 31, the company earned US$2.19 billion, or earnings per share of US$0.47, up from US$2.03 billion, or US$0.41 per share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue increased 2 percent to US$8.37 billion from US$8.18 billion. The company also said on Wednesday that its board had declared a quarterly cash dividend of US$0.12.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS