Alibaba.com Ltd (阿里巴巴) yesterday suspended its shares from trading in Hong Kong as the company prepared a statement about a transaction involving its parent, which is raising about US$3 billion to buy back stock held by Yahoo Inc.
The statement, to address speculation about an unspecified deal involving the parent, may be “potentially price sensitive,” Alibaba.com said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China’s biggest e-commerce company, owns more than 70 percent of Alibaba.com.
Parent Alibaba Group wants to finalize terms of a loan of about US$3 billion by the end of this week for a potential buyback of shares held by Yahoo, a person familiar with the matter said this week.
Yahoo said on Feb. 7 it was “devoting significant resources” to talks that might lead to the sale of its Asian assets, valued at more than US$10 billion.
“The suspension indicates the discussions on the transaction with Yahoo have reached a certain stage,” said Kelvin Ho (何景行), who rates Alibaba.com shares “hold” at Yuanta Securities (元大證券) in Hong Kong. “The likelihood of a deal has increased.”
Shares of Alibaba.com rose 5.5 percent in Hong Kong on Wednesday, the most since Nov. 22.
Yahoo is the biggest shareholder in closely held Alibaba Group, with a stake of about 40 percent, and sold its stake in Alibaba.com in 2009.
Yahoo this week added two new board members and said chairman Roy Bostock is among five directors who won’t stand for re-election this year.
The shakeup may prompt an increased effort by Yahoo to sell its Asian investments, which include stakes in Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan Corp, Herman Leung, an analyst with Susquehanna International Group in San Francisco, has said.
The value of those assets is about US$11.5 billion, said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B Riley & Co in San Francisco. The current board may aim to announce a deal to sell the assets before Yahoo’s annual shareholders’ meeting, he said.
Shares of Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo fell 0.3 percent to US$15.78 in New York on Wednesday.
Yahoo is considering cutting its stake in Alibaba Group to about 15 percent, two people briefed on the matter told Bloomberg News in December.
Bostock’s departure came a few weeks after co-founder Jerry Yang (楊致遠) severed ties with Yahoo, including leaving the boards of Yahoo Japan and Alibaba Group. Last month, Yahoo hired Scott Thompson as CEO to replace Carol Bartz, who was ousted in September.
Alibaba stepped up efforts to buy back the stake after the departure of Bartz, who had opposed a sale.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
Taiwan would remain in the same international network for carrying out cross-border payments and would not be marginalized on the world stage, despite jostling among international powers, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday. Yang made the remarks during a speech at an annual event organized by Financial Information Service Co (財金資訊), which oversees Taiwan’s banking, payment and settlement systems. “The US dollar will remain the world’s major cross-border payment tool, given its high liquidity, legality and safe-haven status,” Yang said. Russia is pushing for a new cross-border payment system and highlighted the issue during a BRICS summit in October. The existing system
Convenience store operator Lawson Inc has registered trademarks in Taiwan, sparking rumors that the Japanese chain is to enter the local market. The company on Aug. 30 filed trademarks for the names Lawson and Lawson Station, according to publicly available information from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office. The product categories on the application include some of Lawson’s top-selling items for use in the convenience store market. The discovery has led to speculation online that the popular Japanese chain is to enter the Taiwanese market. However, some pointed out that it might be a preemptive application to avoid others from co-opting the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to grow its revenue by about 25 percent to a new record high next year, driven by robust demand for advanced technologies used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and crypto mining, International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday. That would see TSMC secure a 67 percent share of the world’s foundry market next year, from 64 percent this year, IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) predicted. In the broader foundry definition, TSMC would see its market share rise to 36 percent next year from 33 percent this year, he said. To address concerns
RSS