■ AUTOMOBILES
VW expands Scania stake
Volkswagen (VW), Europe’s biggest carmaker, said yesterday it had obtained regulatory approvals to take a majority voting stake in Swedish truck maker Scania. “The majority voting stake is expected to be acquired on July 22,” in a deal that will cost VW around 2.8 billion euros (US$4.4 billion), a statement said. EU officials had approved the deal on June 13, but VW still needed various national authorities to stamp it as well. VW will increase its share of voting rights in Scania from 37.98 percent to 68.60 percent, while its shareholding is to rise from 20.89 percent to 37.73 percent, it said.
■ ELECTRONICS
Matsushita mulls new plant
Japan’s Matsushita Electric said yesterday it was considering building a new factory for lithium-ion batteries to expand market share amid stiff competition and growing demand. Lithium-ion batteries, which are rechargeable and have high storage capacity, are used in computers and other electronics and have increasingly been put to use in the automotive and aerospace industries. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, best known for its Panasonic brand, will spend more than ¥100 billion (US$952 million) on the plant to open as soon as 2010 in the Osaka region, Japanese media reported. A Matsushita spokesman said only that the company “is studying various growth strategies in our electrical business but currently nothing has been decided.”
■ FINANCE
Daiwa eyes Brazilian link
Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group Inc will tie up in brokerage operations with a leading Brazilian private bank, the Banco Itau group, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. In the first full-scale tie-up between a Japanese brokerage and a major Brazilian financial group, the partnership will cover such areas as investment banking operations and the handling of buy and sell orders for stocks, the business daily reported. The two banks were to announce later yesterday that they had reached a basic agreement, which may evolve into a capital tie-up in the future, the report said.
■ APPLIANCES
Electrolux reports drop
Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux yesterday reported a strong drop in second-quarter results this year, citing weaker sales in North America and Western Europe. The group posted a pre-tax profit of 140 million kronor (US$23 million), down some 80 percent from a pre-tax profit of 752 million kronor for the corresponding period last year. Net sales were 25.58 billion kronor, down 0.8 percent, with the figure partly affected by exchange rates. Chief executive Hans Straberg said that Electrolux had lowered its outlook for the full year. The group expected an operating income of 3.3 to 3.9 billion kronor excluding items affecting comparability, he said.
■ TRAVEL
Asiatravel forecasts growth
Online hotel reservation service provider Asiatravel.com forecast yesterday that it would maintain room-bookings growth despite a drop in Asia-bound traffic from major markets. It plans to launch Web sites in Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese and Arabic, a statement said. It has also been expanding its services. Customers can book flights as well as hotel and flight packages departing from 10 countries. By the end of this year, Asiatravel.com’s customers will be able to purchase combined hotel and flight packages for all key countries in Asia.
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’