■ Medical Supplies
Biomet draws better offer
An improved offer to buy Biomet Inc may provide enough incentive to seal a deal initially rejected by a major shareholder and a couple of shareholder-advisory firms. The maker of orthopedic products announced on Thursday that a private equity consortium had increased its bid by 4.5 percent from US$10.9 billion to US$11.4 billion. The new offer is for US$46 a share, up from US$44 a share. The consortium includes Biomet founder and former chief executive Dane Miller and affiliates of the Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and TPG.
■ Building Materials
Cemex now the largest
Mexican cement giant Cemex SA became the world's largest supplier of building materials after it won a majority stake in Australia's Rinker Group Ltd, overcoming concerns of potential market dominance in the US. Cemex announced on Thursday it had won acceptance of its US$14.25 billion takeover bid from shareholders representing 50.34 percent of Rinker stock. The acquisition of Rinker will boost Cemex's annual sales of about US$18.2 billion by some US$5 billion, putting it ahead of France's LaFarge, generally considered the largest building materials company with US$21.4 billion a year in sales.
■ Telecoms
Former chief pleads guilty
A former top executive for the Latin American arm of French telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent has pleaded guilty to funneling millions of US dollars in bribes to Costa Rican officials to win a lucrative contract. Christian Sapsizian pleaded guilty on Thursday in US District Court in Miami to two counts, conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. As part of his plea, Sapsizian has agreed to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in their ongoing investigation. Sapsizian faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a US$250,000 fine and US$330,000 in forfeiture when sentenced on Dec. 20.
■ Investing
Warburg to enter China
Private equity investor Warburg Pincus plans to enter China's booming furniture market by spending more than US$190 million on a stake in the country's largest furniture chain, state media said yesterday. The leading US-based private equity firm is in final-stage talks to buy about 20 percent of Red Star Furniture Group for as much as 1.5 billion yuan (US$196 million), the China Securities Journal reported. The deal, if finalized, will overtake a US$125 million investment the US investor made last year in Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd (國美電器), China's No. 1 home appliance chain.
■ Corruption
Asia fraud harmful: survey
US companies in Southeast Asia say corruption is a "major impediment" to doing business in the region except in Singapore, a survey of US businesses released yesterday said. But the survey of senior executives in US companies in six Southeast Asian countries also showed US businesses were confident of growth in the region, a statement from the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore said. The companies surveyed were in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the statement said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
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