■ 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.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
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