PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche buys GenMark
Roche Holding AG has agreed to buy GenMark Diagnostics Inc for about US$1.8 billion to add a provider of tests for infectious diseases, including COVID-19. GenMark investors are to get US$24.05 a share in cash, the companies said yesterday. That is 30 percent more than Friday’s closing price. GenMark, based in Carlsbad, California, makes respiratory pathogen panels that help identify the most common viral and bacterial organisms linked to upper respiratory infections, including the virus that causes COVID-19, complementing Roche’s own diagnostics products. The boards of directors of both companies approved the merger, which is expected to close in the second quarter.
SINGAPORE
Home sales plummet 60%
Home sales fell last month after speculation about property curbs dampened buyer appetite. Purchases of new private apartments plunged 60 percent to 645 last month, Urban Redevelopment Authority data showed yesterday. That compares with 1,632 in January, which exceeded a two-year high. With home prices rising 2.2 percent last year, a further increase in excess of 5 percent could tip the market into “bubble territory,” DBS analysts said in January.
FOOD
Danone fires chairman
Danone yesterday said it had dismissed its chairman, a move that follows months of complaints from foreign shareholders about the French food giant’s underperforming share price. Activist investors took aim at Emmanuel Faber, who became Danone’s boss in 2017, and his management team, demanding his departure and a revamp at the top as the company struggles to plot a post-COVID-19 recovery strategy. Ahead of yesterday’s move, investors had already split Faber’s dual roles of board president and chief executive to improve accountability. While searching for a replacement “with an international profile,” Danone named a trio of top managers to head the firm.
GLOVES
Malaysia boosting output
Malaysia, the world’s biggest rubber gloves manufacturer, is racing to increase production to close a supply gap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that it warns could last until into 2023. The Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (Margma) yesterday said the country was in an oversold position of 160 billion gloves. “The lead time currently is about seven months for the gloves to be delivered to the end customer,” Margma president Supramaniam Shanmugam said, adding that demand would remain robust until the second quarter of next year.
TECHNOLOGY
Tencent falls a second day
Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) shares yesterday fell for a second trading day on concern regulators are now turning their sights to Pony Ma’s (馬化騰) business empire, fueling a US$62 billion wipeout that one brokerage said obliterated most of the value of its online finance business. The stock fell more than 4 percent in Hong Kong yesterday, following a 4.4. percent drop on Friday. China’s top financial regulators see Tencent as the next target for increased supervision after the clamp down on Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Ant Group Co (螞蟻集團), people with knowledge of their thinking have said. Like Ant, Tencent would probably be required to establish a financial holding company to include its banking, insurance and payments services, the people said.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
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