■INVESTMENT
Private investment robust
Private investment in Taiwan totaled NT$386 billion (US$ 12.2 billion) in the first quarter of the year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. The amount was 37.57 percent of the government’s full-year target of NT$1.272 trillion (US$43.1 billion), indicating that the nation is emerging from the shadow of the global financial crisis, the ministry said. Among the industries that saw growing investment, the green energy sector attracted NT$41.8 billion, amounting to 78 percent of the industry target for this year, the ministry said.
■BEVERAGES
Coke raises Innocent stake
US soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has taken a majority stake in fast-expanding British smoothie maker Innocent Drinks, but its founders said on Friday that they would maintain operational control. Coca-Cola increased its stake in Innocent to 58 percent, one year after taking an inital 18 percent share. Financial details of the latest deal were not revealed.
■CEMENT
Cemex to invest in Peru
Mexico’s Cemex, the world’s third-largest cement maker, said on Friday it would invest up to US$100 million in Peru to build a production plant with investment firm Blue Rock Cement Holdings. The new plant will have an initial capacity of 1 million tonnes of cement per year, a statement from the company’s headquarters in the northern city of Monterrey said. The company aims to complete construction of the US$230 million plant in early 2013.
■ICELAND
Official optimistic on loan
Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson on Friday expressed optimism that the country would receive final approval for a crucial IMF loan payout, after an agreement was reached on its conditions. “I’m very optimistic that the path is clear and we will get the review,” Steingrimur Sigfusson said, adding that he expected “a unanimous decision” from the IMF board. The IMF and Iceland on Friday announced an agreement on the conditions for the controversial US$159 million IMF loan payment, which awaits IMF board approval.
■PUBLISHING
Fund buys ‘Reader’s Digest’
A management buy-out backed by an investment company has saved the British division of Reader’s Digest from administration, the deal’s organizers said on Friday. The British arm collapsed into administration on Feb. 17, six months after its US parent group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and almost 100 potential buyers had expressed interest to administrators. Better Capital Ltd said its BECAP fund had backed the buy-out in a transaction valued at £13 million (US$20 million). Managing director Chris Spratling will remain head of the company.
■TECHNOLOGY
Hiring practices probed
The US Department of Justice is investigating whether some of the biggest technology companies agreed not to recruit each others’ employees, violating antitrust laws, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The investigation is looking into hiring practices at companies including Apple Inc, Google Inc, IAC/InterActiveCorp, International Business Machines and Intel Corp, the newspaper reported. In particular, the Justice Department is investigating whether computer engineers and other workers have missed opportunities to move to better-paying jobs because of these companies’ hiring practices, the newspaper said.
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
SPECULATION: The central bank cut the loan-to-value ratio for mortgages on second homes by 10 percent and denied grace periods to prevent a real-estate bubble The central bank’s board members in September agreed to tighten lending terms to induce a soft landing in the housing market, although some raised doubts that they would achieve the intended effect, the meeting’s minutes released yesterday showed. The central bank on Sept. 18 introduced harsher loan restrictions for mortgages across Taiwan in the hope of curbing housing speculation and hoarding that could create a bubble and threaten the financial system’s stability. Toward the aim, it cut the loan-to-value ratio by 10 percent for second and subsequent home mortgages and denied grace periods for first mortgages if applicants already owned other residential
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list
TECHNOLOGY EXIT: The selling of Apple stock might be related to the death of Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger last year, an analyst said Billionaire Warren Buffett is now sitting on more than US$325 billion in cash after continuing to unload billions of US dollars worth of Apple Inc and Bank of America Corp shares this year and continuing to collect a steady stream of profits from all of Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s assorted businesses without finding any major acquisitions. Berkshire on Saturday said it sold off about 100 million more Apple shares in the third quarter after halving its massive investment in the iPhone maker the previous quarter. The remaining stake of about 300 million shares was valued at US$69.9 billion at the end of
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