FINANCIAL SERVICES
Credit Suisse to offer shares
Credit Suisse Group AG plans to sell 58 million shares to buyers who are not existing shareholders for 22.75 Swiss francs a share, the company said in a statement yesterday. The bank expects the sale to generate gross proceeds of SF1.32 billion (US$1.35 billion). The shares will be offered to investors who do not have pre-emptive rights, Credit Suisse said. The Swiss lender also said it has expanded the banking syndicate that is underwriting a SF4.7 billion rights offering.
ADVERTISING
WPP’s Q3 revenue up 5.9%
WPP PLC, the world’s largest ad agency, said third-quarter revenue increased 5.9 percent as business from clients in North America and fast-growing markets in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East drove growth. Sales rose to £2.93 billion (US$4.5 billion) from £2.76 billion a year earlier, London-based WPP said in a statement yesterday. Chief executive officer Martin Sorrell, the best-paid head of a FTSE-100 company, is working to overcome brands’ concerns about economic uncertainty in emerging markets, and what Sorrell said in August was a “tsunami” of clients reviewing their accounts. French rival Publicis Groupe SA said last week that it had no growth last month as clients canceled and postponed campaigns leading to a smaller organic revenue increase for the quarter. WPP shares rose 4.3 percent to £14.80 in London trading on Friday. The stock has gained 10 percent so far this year.
AGRIBUSINESS
S. Kidman & Co for sale
An Australian company that owns cattle ranches and other land greater in area than South Korea is up for sale. Don Manifold, a director of Ernst and Young, who is managing the sale, said on Monday that he expects between six and 12 bidders will lodge their offers for Australia’s largest private landowner by today’s deadline. The company, S. Kidman & Co Ltd, owns 10 cattle ranches, a bull breeding stud and a feed lot covering 101,411km2 in four states. That is an area bigger than South Korea and almost as big as the US state of Virginia. Media speculation about the price has ranged from A$300 million to A$650 million (US$217.6 million to US$471.5 million).
AVIATION
Libyan Wings seeks profit
Libyan Wings, the private start-up airline which began operations last month, is aiming to become profitable within a year and wants to add routes to the Levant and north Africa, its chief executive officer said. The airline, which already flies from Tripoli’s Mitiga International Airport to Tunis, is looking at destinations including Amman, Beirut, Algeria and other points in north Africa, chief executive officer Edgardo Badiali said in Dubai on Sunday. Flights to Khartoum are scheduled to begin in two weeks. Its flights to Istanbul, scrapped after the Turkish government imposed visa restrictions, are set to resume on Nov. 4. “The demand is there, we know there is a market,” said Badiali. “Where there is high risk, there’s an opportunity.” Libyan Wings was supposed to begin operations last year, but was delayed due to fighting between militia groups over control of Tripoli International Airport. The Tunis route operates at 70 percent capacity with a single Airbus A319, and the company is expecting the delivery of a second A319 in 10 days, Badiali said. The airline is still planning to take delivery of the A350 long-haul planes and A320neo narrow-bodies it ordered at the Dubai Airshow in 2013, Badiali said.
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Two scoops of pistachio, one of corruption. For years holidaymakers have guzzled Sicilian gelato at famous parlors in Palermo, unaware that the booming businesses were controlled by organized crime. The fraud was a textbook case for detectives trained to sniff out dirty money, but even with three mobster classics — a suspicious bankruptcy, a front man and a scheming “Godfather” — it took years for investigators to shut the operation down. The Brioscia brand, made up of two ice cream parlors, was thriving at the end of the 2010s, attracting locals and foreign visitors alike with its glittering gold stars on travel