REAL ESTATE
Deutsche not wary of Brexit
Deutsche Bank AG’s asset management arm purchased two office buildings from M&G Real Estate for ￡310 million (US$395 million) in a bet that Brexit would not hurt the market in the long run. The properties, built in 2007, have 38,500m2 of office space on nine floors and are located behind the Tate Modern art museum in London’s Southbank district, Deutsche Bank said yesterday in a statement. “Despite Brexit, London is and remains one of the most attractive locations for real-estate investments in Europe,” Ulrich Steinmetz, who runs real-estate funds for Deutsche Bank, said in the statement.
AUTOMAKERS
Wage hike after VW strike
Unions at Volkswagen Slovakia (VW) on Sunday said they were ending a six-day strike after agreeing to a 14.1 percent wage hike with management at the eurozone nation’s largest private employer. “We are ending our strike,” union chief Zoroslav Smolinsky told journalists after marathon negotiations with Bratislava plant bosses. VW spokeswoman Lucia Kovarovic Makayova said that the agreed 14.1 percent pay rise would be made in three installments and completed by November next year. Workers are to also get a one-off bonus of 500 euros (US$559) and an extra day off, she added. The average salary in the Bratislava VW plant is 1,800 euros, excluding managers’ pay packets, the company said. Slovakia’s average salary is 980 euros. Workers launched the strike on Tuesday last week after management rejected union demands for a 16 percent wage hike, offering an 8 percent rise instead. Smolinsky said that up to 10,000 of the plant’s 12,300 employees downed tools for the first time since production began at the site in 1992.
MOZAMBIQUE
Credit Suisse disputes fees
Credit Suisse Group AG, which helped arrange part of the US$2 billion in Mozambique state-backed loans that plunged the nation into crisis, disputed that it received more than US$100 million in fees for arranging the financing. The bank was responding to Kroll LLC’s audit report into the debts that said it and Russia’s VTB Bank PJSC were paid US$200 million in arrangement and contractor fees. The investigation showed that Mozambican state companies failed to account for about a quarter of the proceeds of US$2 billion in loans being investigated, the Kroll report said. “The reporting that Credit Suisse realized US$100 million or more in ‘arranging’ fees is incorrect and misleading,” a spokesman for the lender said on Sunday in an e-mailed statement. “Banking fees for Credit Suisse totaled US$23 million –- roughly 2.3 percent of the total financings — and is in line with comparable emerging-market financing transactions,” the statement said.
MINING
Sibanye to restart mine
South African precious metals producer Sibanye Gold aims to resume production at its strike-hit Cooke Mine later this week, but planned to first conduct safety inspections in the shafts yesterday. It also needed to wrap up an appeals process for about 1,500 miners who face possible dismissal for taking part in a violent wildcat strike that started nearly three weeks ago in protest against a company drive to root out illegal miners, a company spokesman said. Illegal gold mining has plagued South Africa for decades, with bullion pilfered from both disused and operating mines, and Sibanye has said it will clear all illegal miners from its shafts by January next year.
INVESTOR RESILIENCE? An analyst said that despite near-term pressures, foreign investors tend to view NT dollar strength as a positive signal for valuation multiples Morgan Stanley has flagged a potential 10 percent revenue decline for Taiwan’s tech hardware sector this year, as a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar begins to dent the earnings power of major exporters. In what appears to be the first such warning from a major foreign brokerage, the US investment bank said the currency’s strength — fueled by foreign capital inflows and expectations of US interest rate cuts — is compressing profit margins for manufacturers with heavy exposure to US dollar-denominated revenues. The local currency has surged about 10 percent against the greenback over the past quarter and yesterday breached
MARKET FACTORS: Navitas Semiconductor Inc said that Powerchip is to take over from TSMC as its supplier of high-voltage gallium nitride chips Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday in a statement said that it would phase out its compound semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) business over the next two years, citing market dynamics. The decision would not affect its financial targets announced previously, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said. “We are working closely with our customers to ensure a smooth transition and remain committed to meeting their needs during this period,” it said. “Our focus continues to be on delivering sustained value to our partners and the market.” TSMC’s latest move came unexpectedly, as the chipmaker had said in its annual report that it has
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
SECURITY WARNING: The company possesses key 3-nanometer technology, and Taiwan should prevent it from being transferred to China, a lawmaker said The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it would conduct a “strict review” of any proposed acquisition of Taiwanese tech company Source Photonics Co (索爾思光電), following media reports that a Chinese firm was planning to buy the company in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區). Local media reported that Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing Co (東山精密), China’s largest printed circuit board manufacturer, had announced plans to acquire Source Photonics for 5.9 billion yuan (US$823.1 million). The ministry said it has not received an application from Source Photonics and has formally notified the company that any buyout would constitute a change in its ownership structure. The
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