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.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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