Beji Sasaki, a maverick businessman who first challenged Tokyo’s status quo four decades ago, says his bidding war with the $13 billion computer giant Fujitsu Ltd. is just the start of his plan to use takeovers to change Japan Inc. Sasaki, a 61-year-old entrepreneur, fashion designer and supermarathon runner, says he’s setting up a fund backed by Taiwanese money ...
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May, 2017
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8 May
China mulls 3 mega power firms in $855 billion remix
Bloomberg China is considering plans to create three power giants through mergers of eight coal-fired and nuclear generators with combined assets of almost 5.9 trillion yuan ($855 billion), according to people with knowl-edge of the plan. The proposal, which is only one option being considered as the government of President Xi Jinping seeks to restructure the state-run power sector, ...
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8 May
Garena rebrands as Sea after raising $550mn in new funding
Bloomberg Garena has rebranded as Sea Ltd. after Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup secured $550 million in funds to step up a battle with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and other players in Indonesia. The eight-year-old startup backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. landed a clutch of new investors in its latest funding round, including some of the region’s wealthiest families. ...
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8 May
China deleveraging damage tops $500bn
Bloomberg How much pain can China’s leaders stomach? It’s becoming a key question for investors as the government’s clampdown on financial leverage ripples through markets. The tightening campaign has erased at least $453 billion from the value of Chinese stocks and bonds since mid-April, spurred $21 billion of canceled debt sales and compelled the People’s Bank of China to ...
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8 May
KKR in talks with Toshiba for preemptive chips unit bid
Bloomberg KKR & Co. is in talks with Toshiba Corp. about a preemptive bid for the Japanese company’s memory chips business that would accelerate completion of a sale and end negotiations with other potential acquirers, according to people familiar with the matter. Toshiba is in favor of the proposal from KKR and Innovation Network Corp. of Japan because it ...
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8 May
China’s exports resilient as global demand recovers
Bloomberg China’s overseas shipments held up in April amid recovering global demand and as the threat of a trade war with the US dissipated. Exports rose 8 percent in dollar terms from a year earlier, less than the 11.3 percent increase economists projected in Bloomberg survey Imports increased 11.9 percent, compared with an estimate for 18 percent growth. Trade ...
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8 May
Akzo’s third snub of PPG raises prospect of hostile approach
Bloomberg Akzo Nobel NV rejected PPG Industries Inc.’s third takeover bid in favor of its own breakup strategy, raising the prospect that the US rival will go hostile with its $29.5 billion offer for the Dutch coating and chemical company. After taking two weeks to evaluate the bid, Akzo Nobel repeated that the proposal is flawed and riddled with ...
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8 May
Coach to acquire handbag maker Kate Spade for $2.4 billion
Bloomberg Coach Inc. agreed to buy handbag maker Kate Spade & Co. for $2.4 billion following months of talks, helping the luxury brand cope with an industry racked by deep discounting and sluggish demand. The $18.50-a-share transaction represents a premium to Kate Spade’s price when deal speculation first surfaced in December, but it’s well below the amount investors were ...
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8 May
FrontFour Capital seeks representation at Granite
Bloomberg FrontFour Capital Group is seeking board representation at Granite Real Estate Investment Trust arguing that the company is underperforming peers after failing to use its balance sheet efficiently to make acquisitions, a document obtained by Bloomberg shows. The Connecticut-based activist investor said Granite has the capacity to spend as much as C$1 billion on new purchases, according to ...
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8 May
German factory orders rise as economic boom remains undaunted
Bloomberg German factory orders expanded for a second month as Europe’s largest economy picked up speed. Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, rose 1 percent in March, after expanding an upwardly revised 3.5 percent in February, data from the Economy Ministry in Berlin showed on Monday. The typically volatile reading compares with a median estimate for a 0.7 ...
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