■ MINING
ArcelorMittal raises stake
ArcelorMittal SA, the world’s largest steelmaker, said on Sunday it had increased its stake in Australian miner Macarthur Coal Ltd to just under 20 percent, days after talks on a possible takeover ended without a deal. ArcelorMittal increased its stake from 14.9 percent to 19.9 percent by paying A$212 million (US$204 million) for an extra 5 percent from Talbot Group Holdings, owned by Macarthur founder Ken Talbot. It said the purchase was in line with recent moves to secure its own supplies of key raw materials as global prices soar. Macarthur supplies more than a third of the world’s pulverized coal, which is used to heat steel furnaces.
■ TELECOMS
France Telecom drops bid
France Telecom said yesterday it was abandoning its offer to buy Nordic telecoms operator TeliaSonera, citing a failure to agree on financial conditions. “Despite favorable interest in the proposal, open dialogue with the board of TeliaSonera failed to come to an agreement on financial parameters,” it said in a French-language statement. It added that the attempt to acquire TeliaSonera was “not indispensable” in the context of its broader corporate strategy. Earlier last month, France Telecom made a preliminary offer of 33 billion euros (US$53 billion) for TeliaSonera in a bid to create the world’s fourth-biggest mobile operator.
■ INTERNET
Google, Tele Atlas sign deal
Tele Atlas, the digital mapmaking arm of TomTom NV, has signed a five year supply deal with Google Inc. Tele Atlas says the terms of the deal were not disclosed but it makes Google among its largest customers. Google was already a purchaser of maps from both Tele Atlas and its major competitor Navteq Corp, which is in the process of being acquired by Nokia Corp. The companies said yesterday the new deal will allow Google Maps and Google Earth developers and users more access to Tele Atlas map data to create new products.
■ MEDICINE
Sonic acquires Hawaii Labs
Australian medical diagnostic company Sonic Healthcare Ltd has bought Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii for US$121 million, the company announced yesterday. The deal includes Clinical Laboratories’ pathology practice, Pan Pacific Pathologists, Sonic Healthcare said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange. “The acquisition of Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii further expands Sonic’s footprint in the US laboratory market place and offers synergies with our existing operations in terms of purchasing, esoteric testing and sharing of best practice systems and laboratory protocols,” Sonic Healthcare chief executive Colin Goldschmidt said.
■ ENERGY
Gas found in Malaysia
Petroliam Nasional Bhd, Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company, has made a second gas discovery in the Mubarak Block, located in Pakistan’s Sindh Province, the Business Times reported, citing a company official. The finding was made by Petronas Carigali Pakistan Ltd, a unit of Petroliam that owns 57 percent of the project, at a depth of 3,780m, the report said, citing a company spokesman it did not identify. The gas flow from the Saquib-1X well was between 13.4 million and 25.2 million cubic feet a day, and between 47.5 barrels and 63.9 barrels of condensate a day, the report said. The Mubarak Block has been explored since 1999, it said.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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