HNA Group Co (海航集團), the Chinese aviation-to-hotels conglomerate, increased its stake in Deutsche Bank AG to almost 10 percent, overtaking BlackRock Inc as the top shareholder in Europe’s largest investment bank.
HNA’s holding in Germany’s biggest bank increased to 9.92 percent, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday by investment entities acting on HNA’s behalf.
The conglomerate initially reported a 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank in February, saying at the time that it might increase its holding, while intending to remain below 10 percent.
It disclosed a stake of almost 4.8 percent in March.
Deutsche Bank chief executive officer John Cryan is focusing his attention on returning the lender to growth after grappling with losses resulting from legal probes and misconduct charges. Last month, the bank sold 8 billion euros (US$8.73 billion) of new shares to bolster capital after abandoning an earlier plan to sell its Postbank unit.
HNA’s voting rights in Deutsche Bank are formally held by a vehicle structured by Austrian asset manager C-Quadrat Investment AG.
C-Quadrat chief executive officer Alexander Schuetz has been nominated to join the bank’s supervisory board after a confirmation vote of the bank’s annual general meeting on May 18.
Spokespeople for Deutsche Bank and C-Quadrat declined to comment.
HNA’s holding surpasses BlackRock’s 5.9 percent investment, which had been the largest stake in Deutsche Bank, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Chinese conglomerate has spent US$30 billion on deals over the past year.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such