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On July 13, Bernd Lange, chairman of the European Parliaments Trade Committee, said that the EU should formulate countermeasures as soon as possible on Monday. He said: "Trumps tariffs on the EU are a slap in the face of negotiations. This is not the way to deal with an important trading partner."On July 13, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of US AI search startup Perplexity, said on social media that based on the good performance of the Kimi K2 model, the company may use K2 for post-training in the future. DeepSeek R1 was also used by Perplexity for model training. K2 is a trillion-parameter open source model recently released by Kimi, which emphasizes code capabilities and general agent task capabilities.July 13, analysts said that financial markets, which have become increasingly insensitive to U.S. tariff threats, will face a test when they open on Monday after Trump announced over the weekend that he would impose 30% tariffs on the European Union and Mexico from August 1. Trump has recently stepped up trade measures, promising to impose more tariffs on everything from Canada to Brazil to Algeria and inviting trading partners to further negotiations. Despite warnings from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and others not to take it lightly, investors have so far reacted as if they were counting on the U.S. president to back down again because they have seen the previous 180-degree turn. Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, said: "Investors should not just treat Trumps threat of a 30% tariff on EU goods as a bluff. This tariff level is punitive, but it may hurt the EU more than the United States, so the clock is counting down."On July 13, French President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media on the 12th that France and the European Commission strongly opposed the US announcement that day to impose a 30% tariff on EU exports from August 1. Macron wrote that in the context of EU unity, the European Commission should demonstrate the EUs determination to defend its own interests. If Europe and the United States cannot reach an agreement before August 1, the EU should mobilize all tools, including anti-coercion mechanisms, to speed up the preparation of "credible countermeasures." France supports the European Commission and the United States to step up negotiations in order to reach an agreement acceptable to both sides before August 1.European Council President: The EU remains fully supportive of efforts to reach a fair agreement with the United States.

Bidders assess bids valuing Toshiba at $22 billion or more - sources

Charlie Brooks

Jun 23, 2022 11:27


According to three sources cited by Reuters, bidders for Toshiba (OTC:TOSYY) Corp are considering offering up to 7,000 yen ($51.41) a share to take the struggling Japanese conglomerate private, valuing the deal at over $22 billion.


Toshiba, which is assessing its strategic options, stated this month that it has received eight initial takeover proposals and two capital partnership proposals that would allow it to remain publicly listed.


According to the sources, the bidders are currently exploring an offer price range of up to 7,000 yen per share with Toshiba's shareholders. This is a 27 percent premium over Toshiba's closing share price of 5,501 yen per share on Wednesday.


According to a third source, there is a vast selection of offers with several stipulations attached.


On Thursday morning in Tokyo, Toshiba shares climbed by 5.3%, outpacing the Nikkei average gain of 0.8%.


The chips-to-nuclear-reactors conglomerate would be valued at a maximum of 3 trillion yen ($22 billion) if the bid price is completed.


Toshiba notified Reuters that it would not disclose the specifics of its strategy.


KKR & Co (NYSE:KKR) Inc, Baring Private Equity Asia, Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Inc, Bain Capital, Brookfield Asset Management, MBK Partners, Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO), and CVC Capital have reportedly submitted first bids.


They said that some of the bidders may form consortiums.


Bain, Blackstone, Brookfield, Baring, CVC, KKR, and MBK all refused to comment. Apollo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


According to individuals who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media, domestic funds, most notably Japan Investment Corp (JIC), and a number of significant stakeholders are examining their participation in the transaction.


JIC declined to comment.

WEAK YEN

If completed, the sale of Toshiba would be the largest in Japan since a consortium led by Bain sold Kioxia for $18 billion in 2018.


The conversations are taking place at a time when a weak yen continues to afflict the Japanese economy, endangering the business plans of Japanese firms and making them attractive takeover targets for foreign bidders.


On Wednesday morning, the yen reached a new 24-year low against the dollar, falling to 136.71.


According to two sources, of all the potential bidders, Bain has been the most "aggressive" in pursuing a purchase.


Even at 6,500 yen per share, a Japanese investment banker with knowledge of the transaction remarked that Toshiba's valuation was "very expensive."


Ultimately, he noted, the price must reflect how investors see Toshiba's 40 percent stake in unlisted chip producer Kioxia.


According to him, this gave Bain an advantage over other bidders because the private equity company possessed a majority stake in Kioxia, meaning it would influence the fate of the chipmaker, impacting Toshiba's value.


In April, after shareholders rejected a restructuring proposal backed by management, Toshiba, which has been beset by accounting and governance problems since 2015, appointed a special committee to find answers.


The company previously announced it will shortlist bidders for due diligence following its annual shareholders' meeting on June 28.