TECHNOLOGY
Qualcomm to buy Jio stake
A Qualcomm Inc arm is to plow as much as 7.3 billion rupees (US$97.1 million) into billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s technology venture Jio Platforms Ltd, taking total investments led by Facebook Inc and others to about US$15.6 billion since April. Qualcomm Ventures, which has committed the amount for a 0.15 percent stake, would support the introduction of 5G wireless networks in India, Jio’s parent Reliance Industries Ltd said in a July 12 statement. The deal gives Jio an equity value of about US$65 billion. San Diego-based Qualcomm would help Jio deliver on the “digital transformation of India,” Ambani said in the statement.
HONG KONG
Book fair postponed
Organizers of one of the territory’s biggest annual trade fairs postponed the event for the first time in its 31-year history after a record spike in COVID-19 cases. The Hong Kong Book Fair, which last year drew about a million visitors and a record 686 exhibitors, would be rescheduled after discussions with the government, the organizer said in a statement yesterday, without specifying the new dates. Three other events are also to be pushed back, it said. About 80 percent of 200 exhibitors surveyed by the 2020 Book Fair Concern Group were considering pulling out of the event, Radio Television Hong Kong reported on Sunday.
MEDIA
Hedge fund eyes McClatchy
Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management LLC plans to buy newspaper publisher McClatchy Co out of bankruptcy, ending 163 years of family control. The companies did not put a price on the deal in an announcement on Sunday. The agreement still needs the approval of a bankruptcy judge; a hearing is scheduled for Friday next week. McClatchy is one of the largest newspaper companies in the US. It owns 30 papers including the Miami Herald, the Charlotte Observer and the Sacramento Bee. It filed for bankruptcy protection because of a heavy debt load stemming from its US$4.5 billion purchase of the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain in 2006. Chatham was McClatchy’s largest shareholder and debt holder.
COSTA RICA
Nation seeks virus relief
President Carlos Alvarado on Sunday said the Central American nation would begin negotiations with the IMF to access a financial aid package to help offset the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic. The president did not discuss the size of the package, but local media reports, citing central bank sources, said aid to Costa Rica would be about US$2.25 billion. The standby arrangement would bring in funds to offset diminishing government revenue as this year’s deficit looks set to exceed 9.7 percent of GDP, the Costa Rican Ministry of Finance said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Beigene to raise US$2.1bn
Chinese biotech company Beigene Ltd (百濟神州) plans to raise US$2.1 billion in a direct offering of 145.8 million shares to fund drug research and market its treatments in the US and China, the NASDAQ-listed company said yesterday. The shares would be priced at US$14.23 each, equivalent to a price of US$185 per American Depository Share — 5.6 percent lower than its closing price on Friday. The offering is expected to close on or around tomorrow, said the company, whose shares are also traded in Hong Kong. Buyers in the share sale include investment firm Baker Bros. Advisors LP and US generics giant Amgen Inc.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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