Asia Pacific Telecom Co (APT, 亞太電信) chairman Lu Fang-ming (呂芳銘) entered a sale and purchase agreement with Macquarie Holdings (Singapore) Pte to buy a stake in the nation’s No. 3 cable TV system operator in his own capacity, a statement released yesterday said.
“The proposed purchase of Taiwan Broadband Communications Co [TBC, 台灣寬頻] is Lu’s personal investment and has nothing to do with APT or Hon Hai Precision Industry Co [鴻海精密],” APT said in a statement.
However, the deal still prompted speculation that it could be Hon Hai’s latest step toward the expansion of its business scope to the cable TV industry and APT might benefit from the digital convergence of telecom and cable businesses.
Hon Hai holds about a 23 percent share of APT after expanding to the telecom sector by acquiring the company last year via its subsidiary Ambit Microsystems Corp (國碁電子).
APT shares rallied nearly 10 percent of the daily limit to NT$10.9 yesterday. TBC has 750,000 subscribers, behind Kbro Co (凱擘) and China Network Systems Co (CNS, 中嘉網路).
Lu has proposed a full buy out of Macquarie APTT Management Ptd Ltd — the trustee manager of Asia Pay Television Trust (APTT), which owns TBC — the APT statement said.
No financial details were disclosed yesterday.
Upon completion of the proposed transaction, Macquarie is likely to divest its entire interest in the units of APTT to a related entity of Lu, amounting to 43.10 million units, or about 3 percent of the unitholding of APTT.
Lu said he believes that “APTT is a high-quality business, and an excellent platform to leverage his sector experience and strategic partnerships in content creation, data processing and telecom services, which might have the potential to drive further growth for APTT unitholders,” a separate statement released by Macquarie said.
If and when the transaction is completed, Lu is likely to appoint a new chief executive officer and chief financial officer of the trustee-manager, the statement said. It is unlikely there would be changes made to the independent directors of the board of the trustee-manager or TBC’s senior management team.
The completion of the proposed transaction is subject to approval by relevant regulatory bodies and lenders.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS