MYANMAR
GDP growth dips to 7%
The nation’s growth rate, once one of the world’s most impressive, has dipped following heavy floods and an investment slowdown sparked by uncertainty over its political transition, the World Bank said yesterday. The bank estimated that GDP growth during the 2015-2016 financial year was 7 percent — still in the top tier of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a significant dip from the previous year’s 8.5 percent. The bank had previously estimated that GDP would grow 8.2 percent for the period.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Nestle eyes allergy test
Nestle SA agreed to pay DBV Technologies SA, a French developer of therapeutic skin patches, as much as 100 million euros (US$110 million) for the right to sell an experimental test to detect milk allergies, the most common food allergy in children. Nestle is to pay the Montrouge-based company 10 million euros upfront for development of the test, which Nestle would have the right to sell globally pending regulatory approval, DBV said in a statement yesterday. DBV said it would fund development and expects to ask for clearance by 2021.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Jazz to purchase Celator
Ireland-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC is to buy Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc in a deal valued at about US$1.5 billion, to gain access to Celator’s product in development for treating acute myeloid leukemia. Jazz Pharmaceuticals is to pay US$30.25 per share in cash for Celator, the companies said in a statement yesterday. The deal represents a 72.6 percent premium to Celator’s closing share price on Friday last week.
TELECOMS
Saudi mulls sale of towers
Saudi Telecom Co, the nation’s biggest telecom, is considering a sale of its mobile transmitter towers, its chief executive said. Margins for traditional telecom services are not what they used to be, and Saudi Telecom is looking for ways to diversify revenue and boost efficiency, chief executive Khaled Bin Hussain Biyari said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. One way to do that is to create a company that would sell the towers. Saudi Telecom has invested “heavily” in cloud technology, he said.
CHIPMAKERS
Globalfoundries eyes China
Globalfoundries Inc, one of the largest contract manufacturers of semiconductors, is forming a joint venture with the government of Chongqing to get greater access to the Chinese chip market. Globalfoundries is to re-equip an older plant in the Chinese city with production aimed for next year, the company and the local government said on Monday in a statement. Chongqing is furnishing land and the existing facility, while the firm is to provide tools to upgrade it to 300mm from 200mm wafer production, making it more efficient.
AUTO PARTS
Takata rules out bankruptcy
Takata Corp has ruled out using bankruptcy as a way of mitigating liabilities from its record air-bag recalls and is instead seeking buyers that could take a controlling stake and carry the company through its crisis, a person with knowledge of the restructuring process said. Lazard Ltd, Takata’s financial adviser, is to meet manufacturers as well as financial firms with the aim to find buyers by the fall, the person said. Takata’s plan is to remain listed and maintain its core businesses, while selling off its non-core operations, the person said.
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
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