INDUSTRIALS
Siemens to buy Mentor
Siemens AG agreed to buy Mentor Graphics Corp for US$4.5 billion in its biggest acquisition since 2014, as the German engineering company extends its industrial software capability. Siemens is to pay US$37.25 a share for Wilsonville, Oregon-based Mentor, the industrial giant said in a statement yesterday. That is 21 percent above the closing price on Friday. Elliott Management Corp, which owns 8.1 percent of Mentor’s shares, backs the offer, Siemens said. The acquisition “will allow us to supplement our world-class industrial software portfolio,” Siemens board member Klaus Helmrich said in the statement. “It will complement our strong offering in mechanics and software with design, test and simulation of electrical and electronic systems.” Mentor is the biggest acquisition announced by Siemens since it agreed to buy Dresser-Rand Group Inc for US$7.6 billion.
FASHION
American Apparel bankrupt
American Apparel Inc filed for bankruptcy, less than a year after ending its first stint under court protection. Gildan Activewear Inc agreed to buy its intellectual property rights for about US$66 million following the filing, the Canadian company said in a statement. Gildan said American Apparel made its filing yesterday. The US clothing retailer ran into trouble just months after shedding US$200 million in debt and emerging from Chapter 11 in February. American Apparel emerged from its earlier bankruptcy after former bondholders — led by Monarch Alternative Capital — took over. As part of its previous bankruptcy, the firm closed at least 13 unprofitable locations. The goal was to operate 212 stores, which in 2014 had produced US$331 million in sales, or 54 percent of the company’s total.
ENERGY
Saudi calls for oil consensus
Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih said it was “imperative” that OPEC nations finalize an agreement over a cut in oil production aimed at boosting crude prices, Algerian media said on Sunday. Al-Falih met his Algerian counterpart, Noureddine Boutarfa, on Saturday and called on cartel members to stick to the surprise cut deal, reached in Algiers in September. “In this period marked by unstable oil prices it is imperative to reach a consensus between OPEC nations and to agree on an effective mechanism and precise figures to activate the historic Algiers accord,” al-Falih was quoted as saying by APS news agency. OPEC members agreed in September to cut the cartel’s output by 750,000 barrels per day, Bloomberg News said.
SHIPPING
Korea buys Hanjin assets
Korea Line Corp, a bulk carrier owned by the Samra Midas Group, won a bid for some assets of Hanjin Shipping Co in a bankruptcy sale supervised by a South Korean court. The company beat bigger rival Hyundai Merchant Marine Co as the preferred bidder for Hanjin’s Asia-US business, a spokesman for the Seoul Central District Court said in a text message yesterday. Final sale documents are to be signed on Tuesday next week, the court said. The acquisition will mark Korea Line’s entry into container shipping. Korea Line is expanding its business after exiting from bankruptcy protection which it filed for in 2011 amid a slump in dry-bulk shipping rates. Bought by the Samra Midas Group in 2013, it operates 29 vessels hauling goods such as iron ore, crude oil and cars. Also included in the bid was Korea Line’s interest to buy Hanjin’s 54 percent stake in a port terminal in Long Beach, California, the court said.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
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