■ENERGY
Entergy optimistic on spinoff
Entergy Corp’s plans to spin off six nuclear reactors including Indian Point in New York should be able to proceed because credit markets have eased, chief executive officer Wayne Leonard said. Entergy, the second-biggest US operator of nuclear power plants, is focused on getting approval from New York regulators, Leonard said. “Now the market is greatly improved,” Leonard said in an interview in Washington on Friday. “We had some investors this week that were making the point, ‘I don’t think you’d have any trouble raising US$4.5 billion for these kind of assets.’” New Orleans-based Entergy announced in November 2007 plans to create a company, Enexus Energy Corp, which would have almost 5,000 megawatts of nuclear generation.
■GERMANY
Recession may bottom out
The country’s recession may bottom out in the second half of the year as industrial production, private consumption and construction orders begin to stabilize, the Finance Ministry said. Europe’s largest economy is likely to contract less severely in the second quarter ending on June 30, the ministry said yesterday in its monthly report. Economic stimulus programs worth 82 billion euros (US$115 billion) have spurred municipal construction and supported consumption, notably boosting auto purchases, it said. Improved business and consumption sentiment “are a sign that the recession may bottom out in the second half of the year.” The country’s economy is forecast to contract 6 percent this year as the global recession curbs foreign demand for exports.
■OIL
PetroChina acquires SPC
Chinese oil giant PetroChina (中石油) announced yesterday that it had completed the acquisition of nearly half of refiner Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC) in a deal worth more than US$1 billion. PetroChina, the listed unit of the nation’s biggest oil and gas producer, has bought 45.51 percent of SPC’s issued share capital, the Chinese company said in a statement filed with the Shanghai stock exchange. PetroChina said last month it had agreed to buy the stake for US$1.02 billion from Keppel Oil and Gas Services, part of Singapore-based conglomerate Keppel Corp (吉寶企業). It will make a mandatory cash offer for the rest of the Singaporean refiner next month, it added. SPC, a regional energy company with interests in petroleum refining and marketing, owns a 50 percent stake in one of Singapore’s three major petroleum refiners. The deal is the latest high-profile overseas bid by China, which sits on US$1.9 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, to fuel its economy, now the world’s third-largest.
■NIGERIA
Takeovers may be allowed
Central bank governor Lamido Sanusi was prepared to break with a decades-old ban on foreign takeovers of its banks, he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “What we have today is that the central bank is not likely to support a foreign bank owning more than 10 percent of a top tier Nigerian bank. That is something that in my view needs to be looked at again,” Sanusi said. He said the ban was not a legal requirement but policy of the previous leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria. “If as governor of central bank I am okay to have a bank owned by nominees and I don’t know who owns them, why wouldn’t I be comfortable with a bank owned by Barclays, or HSBC or China Construction Bank, who I know?” he added. “For me it’s a no-brainer.”
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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