INVESTMENT
Goldman pursues China plan
Goldman Sachs Group Inc won approval to take 100 percent ownership of its securities joint venture in China, a key step to expand in the country, even as growing political tension and a Beijing-led crackdown on the private sector has ratcheted up risks. The move gives the firm free rein to pursue a clearer growth strategy that includes doubling its workforce in China to 600 and ramping up in asset and wealth management. The US bank has already added 116 staff onshore this year, boosting the total to more than 400, a spokesman said.
MANUFACTURING
Philips lowers guidance
Royal Philips NV reduced its growth and earnings guidance after global supply chain disruptions weighed on sales in the third quarter. Philips now expects to deliver low single-digit sales growth for this year, down from the low-to-mid-single digit increase it forecast previously, it said in a statement yesterday. The Dutch healthcare equipment maker expects just a “modest” increase in its profit margin, compared with the 60-basis-point improvement it anticipated previously. “Supply chain volatility has intensified globally,” Philips chief executive officer Frans van Houten said, citing a shortage in electronic components. “We expect this headwind to continue in the fourth quarter.”
E-COMMERCE
THG to seek premium listing
The Hut Group (THG), a rapidly growing British online retailer and tech group that is backed by Softbank Group Corp, yesterday said that it would remove its founder’s “golden share” and pursue a premium listing after its shares plummeted last week. THG, which went public in a bumper initial public offering in September last year, was last week rocked by a 35 percent collapse in its share price following an investor presentation, forcing it to address corporate governance concerns around the group. THG said its founder and chief executive officer Matthew Moulding would cancel his special share rights that had given him control over acquisitions.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford to make EV parts in UK
Ford Motor Co plans to invest as much as ￡230 million (US$315.72 million) to start producing electric vehicle (EV) components at an existing plant near Liverpool after the British government pledged financial support. The Halewood facility would be retooled to start building electric power units from 2024 to gradually replace manufacturing of combustion engine transmissions and safeguard jobs at the site, Ford said yesterday. Earlier this year, the US automaker said it would sell only fully electric vehicles in Europe by 2030. Ford Europe president Stuart Rowley said the plant has about 500 workers, and employment would remain around those levels.
GAMBLING
Playtech up due to takeover
Shares in British gambling software developer Playtech PLC soared by nearly 60 percent after the company agreed to a A$5 billion (US$3.7 billion) takeover by Australian slot machine maker Aristocrat Leisure Ltd. The offer, the latest for a British company by an overseas suitor, values London-listed Playtech at ￡6.80 per share, a premium of about 58 percent to the company’s last closing price on Friday, Aristocrat said in a statement yesterday. Aristocrat would raise A$1.3 billion in a share sale to help fund the acquisition, the Sydney-based firm said.
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
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
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
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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