■MINING
Brazilian firms eye UK listing
Brazilian iron ore firm Ferrous Resources Ltd plans to list in London, raising up to US$450 million to develop its mine projects. “Our target is to be one of the world’s largest iron ore producing companies,” executive chairman Gordon Toll said in a statement yesterday. The listing on the main board of the London Stock Exchange will consist of a combination of new shares and sales of shares by existing shareholders, Ferrous said. The firm, which plans to raise US$350 toUS$450 million from new shares, expects to have a free float of around 25 percent, the firm said. Ferrous aims to produce 25 million tonnes of iron ore per year by the end of 2013 and 65 million tonnes by 2016. It has five assets in Minas Gerais, the largest iron-ore-producing region in Brazil, and one asset in Bahia state, with total resources of 4.5 billion tonnes.
■STEEL
Ansteel plans US expansion
China’s Anshan Iron and Steel Group (Ansteel, 鞍鋼) said yesterday it had signed an equity investment agreement with US mill Steel Development Company that includes building five new US plants. The first plant will be built in Amory, Mississippi, and mainly target the southeastern US and Latin American markets, Ansteel said in a statement on its Web site. It said the structure of the deal, which was signed on Friday, was needed to meet US government requirements that steel used in infrastructure projects funded by a massive US stimulus package come from local manufacturers. The Mississippi government would help subsidize the Amory plant, it said, without providing further details.
■INVESTMENT
Man Group to buy GLG
Man Group Plc, the biggest publicly traded hedge fund firm, agreed to buy GLG Partners Inc for US$1.6 billion to reduce its reliance on a single trading program and expand its range of funds. GLG’s public shareholders will receive US$4.50 in cash for each share, 55 percent more than the firm’s closing price on Friday, London-based Man Group said in a statement yesterday. Man Group has been criticized by analysts for its dependence on AHL, a trading program that accounts for half of assets, and has said it wants to diversify by adding strategies uncorrelated to AHL’s managed futures. The purchase was “central to Man’s stated strategy of acquiring high-quality discretionary investment management capability to broaden our range of diversified, liquid strategies for the benefit of our investors,” Man chairman Jon Aisbitt said in the statement.
■ECONOMY
Singapore’s exports soar
Singapore said yesterday that exports rose 29.4 percent last month from the previous year on strong demand from major trading partners such as the US, China and Hong Kong. The rise in non-oil domestic exports beat expectations and was faster than the 25.4 percent growth in March, trade promotion body International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said. Exports of electronics and non-electronics goods powered the growth, it said. Although shipments to all 10 top export markets climbed, “the largest contributors to the increase were the US, China and Hong Kong,” IE Singapore said. Exports to the US soared 46 percent, up from a 12 percent rise in March, while shipments to China rose 30 percent and to Hong Kong 41 percent. Total trade expanded by 31 percent to nearly S$77 billion (US$55 billion).
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
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