■BEVERAGES
Foreigners eye Coke bid
Foreign firms are keeping a close watch on the fate of Coca-Cola’s bid for Chinese juice producer Huiyuan (匯源) as suspicions about economic nationalism increase, a European business group said yesterday. “Economic nationalism appears to be a growing concern,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber of Commerce, at the launch of the 2008 European Business in China Position Paper in Beijing. “Of course, M&A [merger and acquisition] is a very difficult point,” he said. “Therefore we do watch the ongoing Coca-Cola Huiyuan case very closely to see if that is done by the law.”
■SHIPBUILDING
South Korea tops orders
South Korean yards won half of the world’s shipbuilding orders in the first half of this year, strengthening the country’s dominance in the industry, the government said yesterday. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the shipbuilding industry said yards secured orders for 12.4 million compensated gross tonnes, or 50.6 percent of the world total. It said overall global demand fell sharply compared with last year, but the proportion of orders won by local companies increased. Last year South Korea secured 38.9 percent of all orders placed against 37.3 percent for its main rival China. In the first half China’s share dipped to 34.3 percent.
■ENERGY
BG admits defeat
British gas firm BG Group conceded yesterday that its hostile bid for Australia’s Origin Energy would fail because it would not raise its offer after Origin teamed up with US oil giant ConocoPhillips. “The price implied by this newly announced joint venture is higher than BG Group is able to justify,” BG Group chief executive Frank Chapman said in a statement. “We have therefore decided not to extend or amend our offer, which we expect will now lapse” when its term expires on Sept. 26.
■FINANCE
IMF deputy backs takeover
The US government’s move to take control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will help shore up the housing market, the banking system and the wider economy, a senior IMF official said yesterday. In the text of a speech in Frankfurt, IMF first deputy managing director John Lipksy also said the two mortgage giants would need to be restructured over the longer term. “The intervention in [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] and the broader support to the mortgage market should stabilize [their] balance sheets and the funding of mortgages in the near term,” Lipsky said. “This will help underpin the US housing market, the banking system, and the broader economy.”
■ENERGY
Shell, Iraq to form venture
Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed on a gas joint venture with Iraq worth up to US$4 billion, the Iraqi oil ministry and the Financial Times said yesterday. The deal, which will see the gas extracted from Iraqi fields being both sold in Iraq and abroad, will be signed next month, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said. Shell will become the first Western oil group to sign a deal with Baghdad since the US-led invasion of 2003, with a venture the Financial Times estimated at about US$4 billion. Iraq’s Cabinet has agreed to the contract, which gives the state-owned Southern Oil Company 51 percent and Shell 49 percent in the venture.
The navy has installed 13 Phalanx Block 1B close-in weapons systems on its warships, increasing their defensive firepower, a defense official said on Saturday. The systems cost the navy NT$10.16 billion (US$314.67 million), while eight additional Block 1A systems are being upgraded in the US and are expected to be delivered next year, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Phalanx system used by Taiwan to defend its warships and key radar installations is a radar-cued gun system capable of firing 4,500 rounds a minute at targets as far away as 1.5km, the official said. With their superior range of
FINANCIAL RECORD ISSUE: The TPP did not calculate campaign expenditures and such costs were included in the operational expenses, a party official said The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) last year raised NT$84.3 million (US$2.61 million) in donations and spent no money on campaigning, the latest Control Yuan audits on the campaign finances of Taiwanese political parties yesterday revealed. The audit report was published a day after police searched the offices of accounting firms and other companies linked to TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) presidential campaign as part of a probe into alleged corruption and false reporting of campaign finances dating back several years. Last year, the TPP raised NT$46.6 million in individual donations and NT$30.9 million from businesses while spending NT$71 million, including NT$37 million
CARROT AND STICK: Palauan president said in 2020 the Chinese ambassador to a neighboring country pledged to flood his country with tourists if it switches alliance Beijing weaponized tourism to the Pacific archipelago of Palau over its allegiance to Taiwan and its accusations that China was behind a major cyberattack there, Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr told The Associated Press (AP). Palau, along with Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, is one of the three Pacific nations to recognize Taiwan as an independent democracy. Taipei’s allies in the Pacific have dwindled from six countries in 2019. Nauru abandoned its ties in January. Whipps told the AP in an interview late on Thursday that, in 2020, while he was running for his current post, the Chinese ambassador to a neighboring country
ACCOUNTABILITY? Vivian Huang resigned as a TPP Central Standing Committee member, while an accountancy denied it was to blame for campaign finance errors Prosecutors yesterday searched offices of accounting firms and other companies linked to Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) presidential campaign amid allegations of fraud, while TPP Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) resigned from the party’s Central Standing Committee. Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office and Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau personnel collected material at seven locations in and around Taipei, including at marketing firm Muko (木可行銷公關), accounting firm Jing Hua CPA (精華會計師事務所), OCT Entertainment Co (時樂) and Neo Creative Marketing Production Co (尼奧創意行銷). They also searched the residences of Tai Li-ling (戴利玲), who is registered as the owner of OCT Entertainment and Neo