RESTAURANTS
Yum China rejects buyout
Yum China Holdings Inc (百勝中國), which operates Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants in China, has rejected a buyout offer from an investor group led by Hillhouse Capital Group, a person familiar with the matter said. The proposal to take over the nation’s biggest fast-food operator valued the firm at US$17 billion, or US$46 per share in cash, the Wall Street Journal reported. That represents a 28 percent premium over Monday’s closing price, but it is still lower than an all-time high of US$48.18 reached in January.
GERMANY
Buyers optimistic, cautious
Strong growth has made consumers more optimistic about the economy, a regular poll showed yesterday, but the public remains cautious about their own finances. A monthly survey of about 2,000 people by GfK forecast a 0.1 point fall in its consumer confidence barometer for next month to 10.5 points. Looking at different elements of the survey, GfK said that consumers “see the economy on a solid growth path” after official data showed 0.5 percent sequential growth from April to June.
UNITED STATES
Confidence hits 18-year high
Consumer confidence rose this month to the highest level in nearly 18 years, as assessment of current conditions improved further and expectations about the future rebounded. The Conference Board on Tuesday reported that its consumer confidence index rose to 133.4 from 127.9 last month. It was the highest reading since confidence stood at 135.8 in October 2000. “These historically high confidence levels should continue to support health consumer spending in the near term,” Conference Board director of economic indicators Lynn Franco said.
THAILAND
Rate hike unnecessary
The central bank is under no immediate pressure to raise interest rates like emerging-market peers elsewhere, given the nation’s solid buffers and relatively strong currency, Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said yesterday. The bank is monitoring economic developments closely, including risks to the growth outlook from trade protectionism, Veerathai told Bloomberg Television. While inflation returned to the 1 percent to 4 percent target range, it remains subdued, he said.
BEVERAGES
Coke to buy Moxie brand
Coca-Cola Co is to buy New England cult favorite soda brand Moxie from one of its independent bottlers as it looks to house more of its up-and-coming beverage brands under one roof. The soda giant, which has completed the refranchising of its bottling operations in North America, has inked a deal to purchase Moxie from Coca-Cola of Northern New England for an undisclosed amount. The independent bottler will continue to produce and bottle the favorite, and the distribution footprint will not change under the new ownership.
TURKEY
Credit ratings downgraded
Ratings agency Moody’s on Tuesday downgraded its credit ratings on 20 financial institutions due to the increased risk of a “downside funding scenario” after the collapse of the Turkish lira. Moody’s said the downgrade affected 18 banks and two finance firms. It comes amid persistent concerns over the health of the economy, after the lira lost one-third of its value this month alone. Moody’s had earlier this month cut the debt rating of the government deeper into junk on the same concerns.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
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
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
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