■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.”
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
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