REAL ESTATE
Hainan to buy parent’s unit
Hainan Island Construction Co (海南海島建設), a Chinese developer, plans to spend 26 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion) to buy a property unit from its parent as the country’s property market recovers. Hainan Island is to buy the unit with cash and through a share sale to its controlling holder, HNA Industrial Holding Co (海航資本控股), according to yesterday’s filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. Hainan Island also plans to raise as much as 16 billion yuan in another private share sale to support the acquisition. The company plans to focus on infrastructure investment and operations as its main business after the transaction, it said. The shares have been suspended since June 2.
AVIATION
Lufthansa bows to union
German carrier Lufthansa AG, reeling under a series of recent strikes, said on Saturday it had reached a wage rise accord with services sector union Verdi covering 30,000 ground staff. The accord gives a one-off payment of 2,250 euros (US$2,350) and a 2.2 percent wage rise to ground staff and employees of IT subsidiary Lufthansa Systems, Lufthansa Service catering, Lufthansa Technik maintenance and Lufthansa Cargo freight service, the airline and Verdi said. The collective bargaining accord runs to the end of 2017. Lufthansa is looking to slash costs in the face of competition from low-cost rivals and Gulf airlines.
GREECE
No deal on pension reform
The leaders of five of the seven parties represented in the parliament have failed to agree on pension reforms after a six-hour meeting, prompting the prime minister to criticize the opposition for being “irresponsible” and “unserious.” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had hoped to get the opposition parties to agree on a statement that called for no further pension cuts and present this as a bargaining chip in talks with creditors. The government last summer signed its third bailout deal since 2010, agreeing to deep spending cuts, including on pensions, in return for financial assistance to keep the heavily indebted country afloat.
AUTOMAKERS
India’s Amtek in the red
Amtek Auto Ltd, a cash-strapped Indian supplier of car components, swung to a loss for the year ended September. The company reported a consolidated net loss of 9.87 billion rupees (US$148 million) against a net profit of 8.48 billion rupees last year. Total income slipped 3 percent to 152.13 billion rupees in the year, while finance costs surged 33 percent to 14.70 billion rupees, the New Delhi-based company said in a stock exchange filing. Amtek, which supplies automakers including Ford Motor Co and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, is looking to sell minority stakes in its overseas units to raise funds and cut debt.
INSURANCE
AIG mulls block policy sale
American International Group Inc (AIG), the insurer being pressured by activist investor Carl Icahn to boost returns, is considering the sale of blocks of life policies, according to people familiar with the company’s planning. AIG is weighing the exit of some books of insurance contracts among other options, which could include the sale of life units, the people said. The insurer is seeking to narrow its focus on businesses that can help the company grow most profitably.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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