ACQUISITIONS
XPEC claims flooding in
The Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center has received about 18,000 applications from shareholders of XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技) in a move to claim damages and compensations from Bai Chi Gan Tou Digital Entertainment Inc’s (百尺竿頭) failed tender offer last month. The number of the applications is close to the 20,000 shareholders who were affected by Bai Chi’s abandoned acquisition of a 25.17 percent stake in XPEC, the center said on Tuesday, adding that it would start to prepare to file a class-action lawsuit against Bai Chi and apply for court permission of provisional seizure of the company’s assets.
ACQUISITIONS
Tianjin seeks banks’ help
A Chinese container shipping firm has asked banks to join a loan backing its proposed acquisition of a US computer distributor as it tries to transform itself into a general logistics operation, according to people familiar with the matter. Tianjin Tianhai Investment Co (天津天海投資發展) has invited lenders to contribute to the US$4.27 billion loan to support its US$6 billion proposed acquisition of computer, networking and software distributor Ingram Micro Inc, the people said. Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (中國農業銀行) is coordinating the seven-year facility, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
CHINA
Bank approves first CDS
China’s central bank has approved trading of credit-default swaps (CDS) by financial institutions in the nation’s interbank market, as it seeks to help investors tackle rising non-payment risks among the country’s borrowers, according to people familiar with the matter. The National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors, a unit of the People’s Bank of China, are likely to make an announcement soon, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is not public. This would be the first time the government is allowing CDS to be traded in China, said Xia Le (夏樂), chief Asia economist in Hong Kong at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA.
TELECOMS
Ericsson to cut 3,000 jobs
Telecoms equipment maker Ericsson AB plans to end manufacturing in Sweden with the loss of around 3,000 jobs, Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported late on Wednesday. The daily said it had obtained “confidential documents” outlining a 3 billion kronor (US$350 million) cost-cutting program. According to Svenska Dagbladet, 60 percent of the savings were to be made in Sweden. Ericsson yesterday said its home country would not be excluded from a worldwide drive to cut jobs and save on costs. “We will handle this on a country-by-country basis and our employees and, where applicable, union representatives will always be informed first,” the company said.
TELECOMS
Sprint, HTC team up for Bolt
HTC Corp (宏達電) is working with Sprint Corp, one of the major telecoms providers in the US, to launch the HTC Bolt, according to tech Web site Androidtalk. In a report, Androidtalk said that the HTC Bolt is expected to hit the market on Oct. 18, exclusively for the Sprint network, as a follow-up effort after the Taiwanese vendor introduced the ThunderBolt model, which received a warm reception in the US market five years ago. However, the report said that the HTC Bolt is likely to “end up being a watered-down HTC 10 or a repackaged Desire 10.”
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
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