ELECTRONICS
Thermo Fisher to buy FEI
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is to buy FEI Co for about US$4.2 billion, the latest deal by the diagnostics and research equipment company in a campaign of acquisition to beef up its suite of testing and technology services. Thermo Fisher will pay US$107.5 per share in cash and the deal is expected to close early next year, the companies said in a statement on Friday. FEI produces electron microscopes which are used to analyze proteins, giving Waltham, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher a complementary product line to its mass spectrometry systems.
MACHINERY
CRRC to raise US$1.8bn
CRRC Corp (中國中車), China’s only maker of high-speed locomotives, plans to raise as much as 12 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) in a private share sale in Shanghai to repay debt and to help finance its daily operations. The company’s board has approved the sale of as many as 1.39 billion yuan-denominated A shares at 8.66 yuan apiece, CRRC said in a filing to the Shanghai exchange on Friday. That is a 4.8 percent discount to the last close. Home to the world’s biggest high-speed rail network, China has identified the sector as one of 10 focus industries in a blueprint for economic development.
DRUGMAKERS
Bayer to choose banks
Bayer AG is close to choosing banks to arrange funds for its proposed acquisition of Monsanto Co, according to people familiar with the matter, after the US company rejected the initial US$62 billion bid as too low and sought reassurances on the potential financing. Bayer will probably raise more than US$40 billion in short-term bridge financing and most of the remainder in term loans, the people said. The German company interviewed lenders at its headquarters in Leverkusen this week and is likely to select about half a dozen banks next week, the people said.
STOCK MARKET
TCI Fund supports LSE bid
Activist investor TCI Fund Management supports Deutsche Boerse AG’s proposed takeover of London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE), clarifying the motives behind the fund’s purchase of a sizable stake in the British company. “We support it,” Christopher Hohn, the founder of TCI, told the German magazine Der Spiegel. TCI holds a 4.25 percent stake in LSE, making the hedge fund the sixth-largest shareholder in LSE. In a letter to investors, Hohn said he is confident that both managements will “bend over backwards” to get regulatory approval for the deal.
LAW FIRMS
Mossack Fonseca downsizes
The law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers revelations is closing its offices in the British-dependent territories of Jersey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar, it tweeted on Friday. Mossack Fonseca “will be ceasing operations” in those territories, “but we will continue serving all of our clients,” it said. “This decision has been taken with great regret, as Mossack Fonseca has had a presence in these locations for more than 20 years,” the Panama-based law firm added. The office closures were part of a strategy to “consolidate our service office network,” it said.
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
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
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
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
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