ASE Technology Net Revenue Rises In August

The Kaohsiung City-headquartered, ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (ASX), a provider of independent semiconductor assembling and test manufacturing services, on Thursday, reported a rise in net revenue for the month of August 2021.

The Taiwanese firm posted a revenue of $1.81 billion for the four-week period, a rise of 27.3 percent, compared to $1.42 billion, reported for the same period of fiscal 2020.

The company generated a net revenue of $1.09 billion from ATM assembly, testing, and material business, higher than $841 million last year.

EasyJet Plc Launches Rights Issue; Board Rejects Takeover Approach

easyJet plc (ESYJY.PK,EZJ.L) announced a fully underwritten rights issue to raise gross proceeds of approximately 1.2 billion pounds. easyJet believes the Rights Issue will help restore the Group’s balance sheet position to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. Also, the Board has unanimously rejected an unsolicited preliminary takeover approach. The Board noted that the indicative proposal took the form of a low premium and highly conditional all-share transaction. The potential bidder has confirmed that it is no longer considering an offer.

The company is proposing to offer approximately 66.0% of its existing issued share capital and 39.7% of the enlarged issued share capital in connection with the Rights Issue. The company is proposing to offer 31 new shares to qualifying shareholders for every 47 existing shares. The rights issue is to be made at the issue price of 410 pence per new share payable in full on acceptance by no later than 11 a.m. on 27 September 2021. The company has also agreed commitments for a new four-year senior secured revolving credit facility of $400 million.

As an update on trading, easyJet plc reported that, in August, UK domestic capacity was at 105% of 2019 levels with a load factor of 82%, whist intra-EU capacity was at 81% of 2019 levels with a load factors of 85%.

For the fourth quarter, the Group’s capacity is projected to be approximately 57% of fourth quarter 2019 levels.

For the first quarter of 2022, the company currently expects to fly up to 60% of first quarter 2019 capacity.

INPP HY Pre-tax Profit Down

International Public Partnerships (INPP.L) reported that its profit before tax for the six-month ended 30 June 2021 declined to 27.2 million pounds from 35.4 million pounds last year.

Profit for the period was 27.27 million pounds or 1.68 pence per share down from 35.59 million or 2.21 pence per share in the prior year.

Total income for the period declined to 43.51 million pounds from 51.55 million pounds last year.

The company declared a dividend of 3.78 pence per share for the six months to 30 June 2021. It represents 2.7% growth on the prior corresponding period.

The company reconfirmed its full-year dividend targets for 2021 and 2022 at 7.55 pence per share and 7.74 pence per share, respectively.

British airline easyJet to raise $1.7 billion, rejected bid offer

British airline easyJet said on Thursday it would raise 1.2 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) in a fully underwritten rights issue to fund its pandemic recovery, and added it had recently rejected a takeover offer.

The company said it had rejected an all-share takeover approach which it believed fundamentally undervalued the company. It said the potential bidder had since stated that it was no longer interested in a deal.

EasyJet said that the rights issue presented the company with a strategic opportunity because it planned to use the new funds not just to strengthen its balance sheet, but to take advantage of growth opportunities that arise from the expected recovery in Europe's aviation market over the coming years.

It wants to steal market share from legacy carriers like British Airways-owner IAG, once a rumoured suitor of easyJet, and Air France-KLM as they restructure their short-haul operations.

Under the rights issue, shareholders will be able to buy 31 new shares for every 47 existing shares at a price of 410 pence each, a 35.8% discount on the theoretical ex-rights price of 638 pence per share on Sept. 8, easyJet said.

The rights issue is underwritten by BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Santander and Societe Generale.

It also announced a new committed $400 million secured revolving credit facility.

‘Muhammad Ali’ Explores the Many Layers of ‘the Greatest’

A new four-part documentary series by Ken Burns paints a sweeping portrait of a man whose life intersected with many of modern America’s most profound changes.

By Finn Cohen

Royal Enfield Meteor prices hiked

Royal Enfield has hiked prices of the Meteor 350. Now the motorcycle is priced at ₹ 1.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the base Fireball variant.

The Stellar variant is now priced at ₹ 2.05 lakh while the top-end Supernova costs ₹ 2.15 lakh — exactly the same as the top-end Chrome variant of the new Classic 350. Since the Classic, unlike the Meteor, gets a single-channel ABS variant with a rear drum brake, its starting price is lower at ₹ 1.84 lakh.

This makes the Meteor 350 ₹ 25,000 costlier than when it was first launched10 months ago, even though there have been no changes made to the motorcycle.

Computacenter H1 Adj. Pretax Profit Rises; Revenues Up 29.2% – Quick Facts

Computacenter plc (CCC.L) reported that the Group’s adjusted profit before tax increased by 59.4 percent and up by 61.1 percent in constant currency for the six months ended 30 June 2021. Revenues increased by 29.2 percent and were 31.4 percent higher in constant currency. The Group noted that the result has benefited from 541.9 million pounds of revenue, and 6.8 million pounds of adjusted profit before tax resulting from all acquisitions made since 1 January 2020. Excluding the impact of the acquisitions, revenues grew organically by 9.0 percent on a constant currency basis.

For the six months ended 30 June 2021, profit before tax was 115.2 million pounds compared to 72.4 million pounds, last year. Earnings per share was 70.7 pence compared to 45.3 pence. Adjusted profit before tax increased to 118.9 million pounds from 74.6 million pounds. Adjusted earnings per share increased to 73.1 pence from 46.7 pence.

First half revenue increased to 3.18 billion pounds from 2.46 billion pounds, last year. The Group’s Technology Sourcing revenue increased by 32.4 percent to 2.47 billion pounds and by 35.2 percent on a constant currency basis.

The Board declared an interim dividend of 16.9 pence per share.