■REAL ESTATE
Cathay buys Neihu building
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Taiwan’s biggest life insurer, bought a building in Neihu Technology Park (內湖科技園區) for NT$3 billion (US$96 million), its second property investment in Taipei this year. Cathay Life paid NT$410,000 per ping (3.3m²) for the headquarters of Gala Television Corp (八大電視), the Taipei-based insurer said in a stock exchange filing through parent Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the country’s biggest financial services company by market value, yesterday. The value per ping was a record for Neihu District, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday. Cathay Life won a tender for 2,629m² of land in downtown Taipei with a NT$2.39 billion bid last month.
■BANKING
Taishin sues Chiu Yi
Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), whose shareholders include billionaire George Soros, has filed civil and criminal charges against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) for alleging its 2005 bid for Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) was illegal. Complaints of libel and obstruction of credit were filed on Friday with the Taipei District Court, Taishin said in a stock exchange filing after market closed on Friday. The company denies all allegations made by Chiu, it said in the statement. Taishin is seeking a public apology from Chiu, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing Lin Keh-hsiao (林克孝), president of the Taipei-based financial company.
■INVESTMENT
Park draws NT$1.8bn
Total investment in the Kaohsiung Software Technology Park (高雄軟體科技園區) as of this month reached nearly NT$1.8 billion (US$57.19 million), the Export Processing Zone Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. A spokesman for the administration said the investment came from 56 approved investors who have decided to set up shop in the software park, and that the amount represented a substantial increase from the NT$12.2 billion recorded in June. Of the accumulated total of NT$1.8 million, NT$713 million was invested in the first eight months of this year by 23 companies, the spokesman said.
■SPONSORSHIP
NBA inks deal with Tsingtao
The National Basketball Association signed a multiyear sponsorship agreement with Tsingtao Brewery Co (青島啤酒) in which China’s largest brewer will fund sports and dance competitions related to the league in the world’s most populous nation. Tsingtao, China’s biggest beer company by sales, will sponsor a nationwide search for an NBA China Dance Team, help finance basketball tours in the country and assist in an All-Star Game balloting system, the NBA said in a statement yesterday. Terms weren’t disclosed.
■AVIATION
Boeing may not rebid
US aerospace giant Boeing said on Friday it may exit the rebidding for a US$35 billion contract to build US Air Force aerial refueling tankers unless allowed more time to rework its proposal. The Department of Defense was forced in June to rebid the contract after congressional auditors found flaws in the air force’s decision to award it to Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), parent of Airbus. The Pentagon contract is for 179 aircraft, the initial phase of a fleet replacement project worth some US$100 billion over the next 30 years.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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