BANKING
Greece deal nearly done
The private-equity arms of Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Deutsche Bank AG were close to sealing a deal to purchase the buyout unit of National Bank of Greece SA (NBG), Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing sources. Goldman Sachs Asset Management and DB Private Equity were in talks with one of Greece’s big four banks to buy NBGI Private Equity Ltd for about ￡300 million (US$506 million), two people with knowledge of the matter told the news agency. Although no final decision had been taken, NBGI Private Equity’s management, lead by chairman and chief executive officer Pavlos Stellakis, were negotiating terms that would allow the buyout business to remain based in London after the deal was inked, the sources told Bloomberg.
RETAIL
Prices in UK’s shops fall
Prices in British shops fell last month at the fastest rate since records began seven-and-a-half years ago, the British Retail Consortium said yesterday, marking 15 months of declining prices. The consortium said retail prices last month were 1.9 percent lower than a year earlier, marking the largest drop in shop prices since the series started in Dec. 2006. Prices had fallen by 1.8 percent in June. Food prices rose just 0.3 percent, also the smallest rise on record, compared with 0.6 percent in the previous month, while those for furniture, electrical goods and gardening tools fell at a faster rate last month, the consortium said.
TRADE
Canada, EU settle on deal
Canada and the EU have settled on the final text of a landmark free-trade deal, which is expected to come into force in the middle of 2016, Canadian officials said on Tuesday. The 1,500-page document — which is to eliminate 98 percent of tariffs on goods and services, increase cross-Atlantic worker mobility and harmonize professional qualifications — must still be translated into 23 languages and be reviewed by lawyers, trade officials in Ottawa said. That could take up to two years, and then lawmakers must still ratify the agreement — which has not yet been made public.
BANKING
Bankruptcy plans panned
US regulators warned on Tuesday that 11 giant banks have submitted unrealistic contingency plans in the event of bankruptcy, warning that unprepared lenders could plunge the world into a new financial crisis. The US Federal Reserve and US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said the 11 titans, popularly known as “those too big to fail,” must make better plans to restructure their firms in the event of failure. FDIC Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig said they had failed to show “how, in failure, any one of these firms could overcome obstacles to entering bankruptcy without precipitating a financial crisis.”
COMMUNICATIONS
Sprint abandons buyout bid
US wireless carrier Sprint has decided to abandon a bid for rival T-Mobile, viewing the tie-up as unlikely to win regulatory approval, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Sprint, which is controlled by Japan’s Softbank, had been close to a deal valued at about US$32 billion, according to several reports. The Journal said Sprint gave up after officials from the US Department of Justice and the US Federal Communications Commission indicated they would oppose a deal merging the the third-largest carrier Sprint with the fourth-largest T-Mobile.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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