■ BANKING
RBS may sell bank stake
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), one of three banks bailed out by the British government in October, is considering selling its £2 billion (US$3 billion) stake in Bank of Chinan (BOC, 中國銀行), the Financial Times said yesterday. RBS chief executive Stephen Hester visited Beijing this week to meet with BOC executives and regulators and flagged up a possible divestment of its 4.3 per cent stake, valued at US$3 billion, the paper said. “No final decision has been made about whether the BOC stake will be sold,” the FT quoted a person familiar with the situation as saying. “But the Chinese are now aware of RBS’ thinking on the issue. Selling the stake is among the options.”
■BANKING
BOJ to support credit
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) said yesterday it would provide ¥1.22 trillion (US$$13 billion) in emergency loans to financial institutions as part of a new program to spur lending to the country’s businesses. Under the new program, Japan’s central bank will accept bonds, commercial paper and short-term debt issued by companies as collateral and provide low-interest loans to local banks, hoping to encourage lending back to the companies, said Hidetsu Chida, a BOJ official. There is no limit to the amount of loans the BOJ can provide. It will issue the loans until the end of March in a total of six lending operations. The interest rate for the loans is 0.1 percent, the same as the BOJ’s benchmark overnight rate.
■BANKING
Seoul to help SMEs
The South Korean government plans to give a further 50 trillion won (US$38 billion) in loans and credit guarantees to small and medium enteprises to help stem defaults as the economy faces its first recession in a decade. The government will try to direct funds to companies that can be saved from bankruptcy, the Financial Services Commission said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. More than 60 percent of the funds will be extended in the first half, it said. Korea Development Bank and Industrial Bank of Korea, both state-owned, plan to provide a total of 44 trillion won in loans to smaller firms this year, nearly 40 percent more than last year, the commission said.
■MEDIA
Time Warner facing losses
Time Warner, the world’s largest media conglomerate, said on Wednesday it would take a US$25 billion write-down in its fourth quarter, propelling the firm to its first annual loss in six years. Before Wednesday’s announcement, the firm had expected a profit last year of between US$1.04 and US$1.07 per share. Time Warner, which owns HBO, AOL and Warner Bros, said US$15 billion of the charges stemmed from a decline in the value of the cable TV franchises owned by Time Warner cable. The rest came from declines in the value of its publishing and Internet subsidiaries.
■BANKING
Macquarie warns over profit
Australia’s largest investment bank Macquarie Group warned investors yesterday that exceptionally challenging market conditions last month would hit profits. “During the quarter to 31 December market conditions were exceptionally challenging for almost all Macquarie’s businesses, adversely impacting levels of business activity and profitability,” the bank said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. Macquarie also announced that the sale of its US$1.1 billion margin lending portfolio to Adelaide and Bendigo Bank would be completed yesterday.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
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