■ 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.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’