■UNITED STATES
Securities holdings slump
US portfolio holdings of foreign securities slumped more than 40 percent to nearly US$4.3 trillion last year amid the financial crisis, the Treasury Department said on Monday. The holdings were trimmed to US$4.291 trillion by Dec. 31 from US$7.212 trillion a year earlier, a preliminary annual report said. The holdings at the end of last year comprised US$2.7 trillion in foreign equities, US$1.3 trillion in foreign long-term debt securities and US$300 billion in foreign short-term debt securities, the report showed. The report from a year earlier measured the US$7.2 trillion US holdings as consisting of US$5.2 trillion in foreign equities, US$1.6 trillion in foreign long-term debt securities and US$400 billion in foreign short-term debt securities.
■FINANCE
Citigroup sells card assets
Citigroup Inc said on Monday that it sold US$1.3 billion in credit card assets as the bank reorganizes itself in the wake of government bailouts. The New York-based bank said it sold its entire ownership interest in three North American partner credit card portfolios representing about US$1.3 billion in managed assets. Terms of the deals and the acquirer weren’t disclosed. The portfolios were part of Citi Holdings, one of the company’s units that it split off earlier in the year. That unit holds the holds the company’s riskier assets and tougher-to-manage ventures, while Citicorp is focused on traditional banking around the world.
■MEDIA
Vivendi profit slides 2.8%
Vivendi SA said yesterday its net profit slipped 2.8 percent in the first half as the economic slowdown hit earnings at its core music and mobile telecommunications businesses. Paris-based Vivendi, one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies with holdings ranging from Universal Music Group to the Canal Plus pay TV service, said net profit in the six months ending June 30 was 1.19 billion euros (US$1.7 billion), down from 1.22 billion euros a year earlier. In a statement, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said the company was “successfully weathering the current economic slowdown,” which is having “a real but limited impact.”
■INTERNET
Icahn sells Yahoo shares
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold 12.7 million shares in Yahoo, cutting his stake in the company a month after it formed an Internet search partnership with software giant Microsoft. Icahn, a member of Yahoo’s board and one of its largest shareholders, sold the shares during the last three trading days on Wall Street, an exchange filing on Monday said. Icahn sold the shares at prices between US$14.74 and US$14.92. Icahn and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang (楊致遠) were involved in a dispute last year when Yang rejected a US$47 billion takeover bid by Microsoft for the company he founded with a Stanford University classmate in 1995.
■OIL
Petrobras to control fields
Brazil unveiled plans on Monday to boost state control of recently discovered offshore oil fields by giving its oil company, Petrobras, sole operating rights and a minimum 30 percent stake in any joint ventures. The leading role for Petrobras is part of an overhaul of rules for the vast, untapped subsalt fields, superseding a concession system that already applies elsewhere in the country. Brazil believes the oil finds could turn it into one of the world’s top 10 oil exporting nations.
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
DETERRENCE: Along with US$500 million in military aid and up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees, the bill would allocate US$400 million to countering PRC influence The US House of Representatives on Friday approved an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025 that includes US$500 million in military aid for Taiwan. The legislation, which authorizes funding for the US Department of State, US foreign operations and related programs for next year, passed 212-200 in the Republican-led House. The bill stipulates that the US would provide no less than US$500 million in foreign military financing for Taiwan to enhance deterrence across the Taiwan Strait, and offer Taipei up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees for the same purpose. The funding would be made available under the US’ Foreign Military