SMARTPHONES
Xiaomi eyes Hong Kong IPO
Xiaomi Corp (小米) aims to seek formal Hong Kong stock exchange approval on June 7 for an initial public offering (IPO) that could raise about US$10 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Beijing-based smartphone maker hopes to price the share sale late next month if its application is approved by the bourse’s listing committee, according to one of the people. The listing, which could become the world’s biggest first-time share sale since 2014.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Bayer allays antitrust concerns
Bayer AG is set to win US antitrust approval for its US$66 billion takeover of Monsanto Co by next week, according to a person familiar with the matter, removing the last major regulatory hurdle to forming the world’s biggest seed and agricultural-chemicals company. The companies and the US Department of Justice have negotiated a complex agreement that would resolve the government’s concerns that the merger as initially structured would harm competition, the person said. The deal could be announced as soon as Tuesday.
MEDIA
EU blocks US news sites
Several major US news Web sites including the Los Angeles Times were blocked in Europe on Friday after the EU’s new data protection laws came into effect. Web sites of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel all displayed the same message saying that they could not be accessed. The blocked Web sites are all owned by media company Tronc.
PAPER MILLS
Nine Dragons buys US mills
Canadian company Catalyst Paper Corp is selling its US operations, including paper mills in Rumford, Maine, and Biron, Wisconsin, to a Chinese company. A subsidiary of Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Ltd (玖龍紙業) on Friday announced that it is paying US$175 million for the mills. Catalyst president and CEO Ned Dwyer said the sale of the company’s US assets allows the company to pay down debt and focus on operations in British Columbia.
AVIATION
Boeing guides Trent 1000 fix
Boeing Co has dispatched a prominent executive to help Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC work through escalating engine problems that have grounded dozens of 787 Dreamliners. Keith Leverkuhn is serving as Boeing’s eyes and ears at Rolls factories in Singapore and Derby, England, where the Trent 1000 engine is manufactured and being repaired. About 34 Dreamliners are parked and awaiting repaired engines, and the number is at risk of rising, people familiar with the matter said.
FITNESS
SoulCycle drops IPO plans
Almost three years after filing for a US IPO, SoulCycle Inc has officially put the brakes on its public market ambitions. SoulCycle on Friday said it has decided not to pursue an IPO “due to market conditions,” a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said. While the New York-based fitness chain first detailed plans for an IPO in July 2015, less than a year later chief executive officer Melanie Whelan said the listing process was “in a holding pattern.”
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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