■BANKING
Commerzbank asks for cash
Commerzbank, the second-biggest German bank, took the plunge and said yesterday that it would ask the government for 8.2 billion euros (US$10.5 billion) in cash and 15 billion euros more in debt guarantees. Commerzbank also posted a third-quarter net loss of 285 million euros and an operating loss of 475 million euros. The international financial crisis cost the bank 1.1 billion euros in losses from market operations, the statement said. Commerzbank said it had increased loan loss provisions to 628 million euros from 414 million euros, a sign the bank expects more turbulence in the future.
■BANKING
BPN to be nationalized
Portugal is planning to nationalize the troubled Banco Portugues de Negocios (BPN) in yet another rescue of a financial institution, Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos announced on Sunday at the end of a special Cabinet session. The government of Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates is to propose the nationalization before parliament, the finance minister said. BPN recently reported loses of 700 million euros and finds itself on the edge of bankruptcy, dos Santos said, adding that there were no prospects of the bank acquiring new reserves of liquidity any time soon.
■TECHNOLOGY
Hynix debt rating cut
Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, had its debt rating cut to three levels below investment grade at Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the company’s weaker credit profile and earnings. Hynix’s corporate family and senior unsecured bond ratings were cut to Ba3 from Ba2, affecting about US$500 million in debt securities, Moody’s said in a statement yesterday. Moody’s has a negative outlook on the ratings. The downgrade brings Hynix’s ratings at Moody’s in line with those assigned at Standard & Poor’s, which last week changed the outlook on the South Korean chip maker’s debt to negative. Hynix on Oct. 30 reported its biggest loss in at least seven years after a glut drove down prices of computer memory chips.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Economy to shrink next year
The economy will shrink for the first time since 1991 next year and debt will surge to more than 60 percent of GDP as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ramps up spending, European Commission forecasts showed. The economy will contract 1 percent after expanding 0.9 percent this year, the EU’s executive arm said in a report published in Brussels yesterday. It will grow 0.4 percent in 2010. Debt will be 50.1 percent of GDP this year, 55.1 percent next year and 60.3 percent in 2010, the commission said. Brown and Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Alistair Darling signaled last week they would abandon a decade-old pledge to limit debt to 40 percent of GDP as they try to ease the effects of a likely recession on consumers and companies.
■METALS
Demand outstrips supply
China, the world’s largest consumer of aluminum, may need four times as much scrap aluminum as can be produced domestically, the China National Resources Recycling Association said. Scrap aluminum consumption may grow 25 percent to 11.8 million tonnes next year, whereas domestic output may rise by a similar rate to 3.3 million tonnes, the association said yesterday at a conference in Shanghai.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
RSS