PHARMACEUTICALS
Acorda to buy Biotie
Acorda Therapeutics Inc has agreed to buy Biotie Therapies Corp to gain experimental medicines to treat Parkinson’s disease, valuing the Finnish drugmaker at about US$363 million. Acorda will pay 0.2946 euros in cash for each Biotie share traded on NASDAQ Helsinki and 23.57 euros for each American depositary receipt, a premium of more than 90 percent in both cases, the Ardsley, New York-based company said in a statement. Biotie’s board endorsed the offer in a separate release. Acorda will obtain worldwide rights to tozadenant, which is in the last stage of tests for Parkinson’s disease. The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault recalling cars
Renault SA said it is recalling more than 15,000 vehicles after an investigation showed their pollution filtering systems need adjustment. The filtering system on the vehicles does not work at very hot temperatures or below 17?C, French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Segolene Royal said yesterday in an interview with RTL Radio. Making the filters operational at those temperatures will take about a half a day per engine, the minister said. The carmaker has come under pressure after it revealed on Thursday last week that its offices in France were searched by government fraud investigators as part of a probe into vehicle emissions.
MACROECONOMICS
German prices rose 0.3%
Consumer prices in Germany rose by 0.3 percent last month, bringing the average inflation rate for the year as a whole also to 0.3 percent, official data showed yesterday. The national inflation yardstick had edged up by 0.4 percent in November last year. Using the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices — the barometer used by the European Central Bank — the German inflation rate stood at 0.2 percent for last month alone and 0.1 percent for the whole of last year, the German federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement.
IRAN
Asset transfers a success
Central Bank of Iran Governor Valiollah Seif says the bank has successfully transferred some of its formerly frozen assets in order to ensure that financial sanctions have been fully lifted in accordance with a historic nuclear deal. State TV yesterday quoted Seif as saying the government has transferred assets from banks in Japan and South Korea to banks in Germany and the United Arab Emirates. He did not provide the amount of the transfers. Seif says the lifting of sanctions, which took place over the weekend after the UN verified Tehran’s compliance with the nuclear deal, would give the nation access to US$32 billion in overseas assets. President Hassan Rouhani yesterday said the nation should redouble efforts to attract foreign investment and liberalize its economy.
ENERGY
CNOOC to cut spending
China National Offshore Oil Corp Ltd, (CNOOC, 中國海洋石油) plans to cut spending and reduce production this year amid oil’s plunge below US$30 a barrel. CNOOC shares yesterday closed up 4 percent in Hong Kong to HK$7.01. The stock dropped 23 percent last year, compared with a 7.2 percent decline in the territory’s benchmark Hang Seng Index. CNOOC said it plans to start four new projects this year while drilling 115 exploration wells. The company is targeting production of 484 million barrels of oil equivalent next year and 502 million in 2018.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
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
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
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence
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