MINING
Merger to create gold giant
Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold Corp has bought Africa-focused rival Randgold Resources Ltd to create a global industry champion worth US$18.3 billion, the pair said yesterday. The blockbuster all-share deal was described as a merger, but is effectively a takeover, because Barrick investors are to own a majority 66.6-percent stake. Randgold shareholders will hold the rest. The enlarged company, keeping the Barrick name, is to be traded in New York and Toronto. Randgold’s London listing is to be canceled. The group would have total annual revenues of about US$9.7 billion.
MINING
Australia to see mega-IPO
Coronado Global Resources Inc, a miner backed by private equity firm Energy & Minerals Group, and current investors are seeking to raise as much as A$1.4 billion (US$1.02 billion) in what would be Australia’s largest coal initial public offering (IPO). The company and existing holders are offering Chess Depository Interests at A$4 to A$4.80 each, a prospectus lodged with the nation’s regulator yesterday said. That would give Coronado, the biggest US metallurgical coal producer, an enterprise value of as much as A$4.4 billion. Trading is scheduled to start on Oct. 23 on the Australian Securities Exchange, it said in a statement.
METALS
UAE firm pulls initial listing
A planned share sale in the United Arab Emirates might be the latest casualty of US President Donald Trump’s trade policies. US tariffs on aluminum imports have prompted Emirates Global Aluminium, which produces about 4 percent of the metal globally, to delay an initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said. The company confirmed the decision, but said it had canceled the listing due to unfavorable market conditions. The company exports about 90 percent of its output and considers the US a “key market,” it said. The company reiterated its plans to sell shares publicly, but said that market conditions “may not improve until later” next year.
AUTOMAKERS
Porsche touts end of diesel
Porsche chief executive Oliver Blume said the sports car maker would not produce any new diesel models in the wake of parent company Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal. Blume told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that, although Porsche itself never developed and produced diesel engines, its image has suffered from the scandal that erupted in 2015. He said the company wants to concentrate on “what we can do particularly well,” citing high-performance gasoline models, hybrids and, from next year, electric cars. “That also means that there will be no more diesels from Porsche in the future,” Blume added.
TECHNOLOGY
Firms to help UN halt famine
Technology giants Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google are joining forces with international organizations to help identify and head off famines in developing nations by using data analysis and artificial intelligence, as part of a new initiative unveiled on Sunday. Rather than waiting to respond to a famine after many lives have been lost, the tech companies “will use the predictive power of data to trigger funding” to take action before situations fevelop into to a crisis, the World Bank and UN said in a joint statement.
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
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
ELECTRONICS: Strong growth in cloud services and smart consumer electronics offset computing declines, helping the company to maintain sales momentum, Hon Hai said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday announced that its sales for last month rose 10 percent year-on-year, driven by strong growth in cloud and networking products amid the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company, also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), reported consolidated sales of NT$540.24 billion (US$18.67 billion) for the month, the highest ever for the period, and a 10.09 percent increase from a year earlier, although it was down 12.26 percent from the previous month. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said its cloud
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