BANKING
SABB to buy Alawwal Bank
HSBC Holding PLC’s Saudi Arabia unit offered to pay a 29 percent premium to acquire Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC’s (RBS) local venture in a US$5 billion stock deal. In the preliminary agreement between RBS-backed Alawwal Bank and Saudi British Bank (SABB), Alawwal shareholders are to receive 0.485 SABB shares per Alawwal share. The deal values Alawwal’s existing share capital at about 18.6 billion riyals (US$4.96 billion). A merger would be Saudi Arabia’s first bank combination in almost 20 years and would make SABB the kingdom’s third-biggest lender with assets of about US$73 billion.
BANKING
PNB shares plummet 12%
Shares in fraud-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) yesterday plunged more than 12 percent after it posted the largest-ever quarterly loss for an Indian lender. PNB, India’s second-biggest state-run bank, on Tuesday said it had incurred a record 134.17 billion rupee (US$1.98 billion) net loss for the January-to-March quarter. The bank has been reeling since announcing in February that it had been the victim of a 135 billion rupee scam involving celebrity jeweler Nirav Modi. PNB has accused Modi and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi of defrauding it of 2.8 billion rupees, which was just part of its total losses.
INVESTMENT
Son working on new fund
Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of Softbank Group Corp, is already thinking about his next US$100 billion venture — a version 2.0 of the world’s biggest technology fund, people familiar with the matter said. The Japanese entrepreneur has held preliminary discussions with investors about committing to a second fund as early as next year, the people said, adding that the planned fund would likely draw a wider pool of investors than the first one. A representative for Softbank declined to comment.
TAXES
Seattle to impose ‘head tax’
Seattle’s largest businesses, such as Amazon.com Inc and Starbucks Corp, would have to pay a new tax to help fund homeless services and affordable housing under a measure approved by city leaders. The Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously passed a compromise plan that taxes businesses making at least US$20 million in gross revenue about US$275 per full-time worker each year — less than the US$500 per worker initially proposed. The so-called “head tax” would raise about US$48 million per year to build new affordable housing units and provide emergency homeless services. Amazon, Starbucks and business groups sharply criticized the council’s decision after Monday’s vote, calling it a tax on jobs and questioning whether city officials were spending current resources effectively.
FINANCE
GFG plans global expansion
Tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance is planning an expansion of its financial services business outside of Europe, targeting opportunities to provide lending and insurance to mid-sized businesses. “All industries go through this turnaround where new blood is required, and certainly in financial services,” GFG executive chairman Gupta told Bloomberg Television in an interview yesterday. “Whether it’s in banking, in insurance, whether it’s other forms of finance, we see a great opportunity serving the middle market.” GFG is to expand its banking and insurance arm into Australia, targeting business with companies in the US$50 million to US$500 million range, Gupta said.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
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