MACHINERY
Komatsu to buy Joy Global
Komatsu Ltd, the world’s second-biggest construction equipment maker, agreed to buy Joy Global Inc for US$2.89 billion, bolstering the Japanese firm’s underground mining business amid a fight for market share with industry leader Caterpillar Inc. Tokyo-based Komatsu will pay US$28.30 per share in cash for the Milwaukee-based company, using funds on hand and loans, the company said yesterday. The deal is expected to close in the middle of next year after approvals by regulators and shareholders, it said.
BEVERAGES
AB InBev secures approval
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (AB InBev), the world’s largest beer maker, on Wednesday announced that it had reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice that clears the way for US approval of its acquisition of SABMiller PLC. AB InBev, the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light, is to sell SABMiller’s entire US business to Molson Coors as previously announced as part of the agreement. The merger with the maker of Miller Genuine Draft, valued at about US$107 billion, would have about 31 percent of the global beer market, according to Beer Business Daily.
RETAIL
UK sales fall after Brexit
UK retail sales last month had their biggest drop in six months, adding to signs that the vote to leave the EU is starting to bite. The volume of goods sold in stores and online dropped 0.9 percent, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed yesterday. Sales excluding car fuel also fell a larger-than-expected 0.9 percent. The statistics office carried out its monthly survey between May 29 and July 2, meaning some responses were received in the week following the June 23 Brexit referendum.
CONSUMER GOODS
Unilever sales up 2 percent
Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant Unilever Co said its net profit in the first half of the year rose 2 percent to 2.7 billion euros (US$3 billion), despite sales declining 2.6 percent to 26.3 billion euros due to exchange rate fluctuations. Unilever yesterday said that its underlying sales growth, which strips out the effect of factors such as currency changes, was a healthy 4.7 percent, despite tough economic conditions around the world.
AIRLINES
Lufthansa cuts profit target
Terror attacks in Europe and “political and economic uncertainty” have prompted Deutsche Lufthansa AG to cut its full-year profit target, the company said on Wednesday. In the first half of the year Lufthansa reported earnings of 529 million euros, a jump of 13 percent compared with the previous year. Despite those improved figures, Lufthansa “regards a complete recovery as not likely anymore,” it said. The airline predicted unit revenues would fall by 8 to 9 percent in the second half of the year, from 15 billion euros in the first half.
TIMEPIECES
Swatch profit declines
Swatch Group AG, the maker of Omega and Tissot timepieces, reported its lowest first-half profit in seven years, as demand cratered in Hong Kong, France and Switzerland. First-half operating profit declined 54 percent to 353 million Swiss francs (US$359 million), the Biel, Switzerland-based company said in a statement yesterday. The company last week said that earnings at that level probably fell by 50 to 60 percent, sending its shares plummeting.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
RSS