■ BANKING
Consider rival bids: Darling
British finance minister Alistair Darling has asked troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock to consider rival bids to the one launched by Richard Branson's Virgin Group, the Financial Times said yesterday. The paper, which cited people close to the deal, said that private equity groups Cerberus and JC Flowers had submitted separate bids, after Northern Rock named a consortium led by Virgin as its preferred long-term saviour a week ago. "Clearly it makes sense to have more than one interested party, from the taxpayers' point of view and also from the standpoint of Northern Rock shareholders," an unidentified official close to the deal was quoted as saying.
■ FRANCE
State sells EDF shares
France sold as much as 3.7 percent of Electricite de France SA (EDF) yesterday to raise 5.6 billion euros (US$8.2 billion) for renovating the country's universities. The government offered an initial 45 million shares to money managers, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said in a faxed statement. That's more than the 3 percent stake announced for sale by President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday. "EDF is a unique case in that it has relatively low profitability," Per Lekander, a UBS AG analyst, said by phone yesterday. "Regulated rates in France are incredibly low. If ever they rise to market price EDF margins would be quadrupled, so the leverage is significant."
■ INSURANCE
AIG cancels REIT listing
American International Group Inc (AIG), the world's largest insurer, canceled plans to list shares of a real estate investment trust in Japan. AIG's real estate unit had planned to list shares of J-REIT Toshi Hojin this month. "We are canceling the December listing because of the market environment," said Takashi Yamauchi, general manger of finance and accounting at AIG's real estate unit in Japan. "We still plan to list a REIT, it's just that it will be delayed."
■ OIL
Caracas opposes quota hike
Venezuela will oppose any increase in crude oil output quotas during Wednesday's OPEC meeting in the United Arab Emirates, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Sunday. A key issue at the Dec. 5 meeting in Abu Dhabi will be a proposal to create a currency basket to price crude sold by all OPEC members, Ramirez told reporters in Caracas. "We don't see a need to increase oil production ... The market is well supplied," he said. "The basket of currencies is something we have pending and we will touch on that."
■ TELECOMS
SK Telecom takes stake
South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom said yesterday that it has signed a US$1 billion deal to take a controlling stake in Internet service operator Hanarotelecom. The deal "will help promote competition through a wider range of new services and revitalize the currently saturated telecommunications market," SK Telecom said in a statement. The firm will buy 38.89 percent of Hanarotelecom for 1.087 trillion won (US$1.17 billion). Along with its existing stake it will become the largest shareholder with 43.59 percent. Hanarotelecom is the country's second-largest broadband service provider. The conditional deal is subject to government approval.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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