■BANKING
Deutsche plans rights issue
Deutsche Bank is set to raise up to 9 billion euros (US$11.5 billion) through a rights issue to bolster its capital as global banking regulators finalize tough new rules for the industry, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Germany’s biggest bank aims to announce the offering on Monday or Tuesday, in what will be the largest rights issue by a European bank this year, the report said, citing people close to the plan. The issue will raise between 8 billion and 9 billion euros. Deutsche Bank’s current market value is 30 billion euros, according to the newspaper.
■RETAIL
Casey’s, 7-Eleven in talks
Casey’s General Stores Inc confirmed on Thursday it was in talks with 7-Eleven Inc after receiving an unsolicited buyout offer from the convenience store operator. Casey’s, which operates a chain of convenience stores in the US Midwest, said 7-Eleven offered last week to buy the company for US$40 a share in cash, or US$2.04 billion. Casey’s board of directors believes the company is worth substantially more than what Dallas-based 7-Eleven is offering, but opted to continue talks. There are more than 7,100 7-Eleven stores in the US and Canada. Casey’s, which is based in Iowa, operates 1,531 stores.
■INTERNET
Facebook tops Google in US
US Web surfers are spending more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google, according to new data from researchers at comScore Inc. Last month, people spent a total of 41.1 million minutes on Facebook, comScore said on Thursday, about 9.9 percent of their Web-surfing minutes for the month. That just barely surpassed the 39.8 million minutes, or 9.6 percent, people spent on all of Google Inc’s sites combined, including YouTube, the free Gmail e-mail program, Google news and other content sites.
■AVIATION
Aussie-NZ alliance rejected
Australia’s competition regulator yesterday gave a thumbs down to a proposed airline alliance on flights between Australia and New Zealand. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s preliminary decision said a link between Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand was likely to reduce competition in the market. The commission said interested parties have until Sept. 24 to respond to the draft ruling. The decision comes a day after the US Department of Transportation tentatively denied Virgin Blue’s proposed joint-venture partnership with Delta Air Lines on flights between the US and Australia.
■ECONOMY
IMF to sell Bangladesh gold
The IMF on Thursday announced it would sell 10 tonnes of gold to Bangladesh, worth about US$403 million. “This transaction is part of the total sales of 403.3 metric tons approved by the executive board,” the IMF said in a statement. That decision was taken last September and was followed by the sale of 212 tonnes of gold to the Reserve Bank of India, the Bank of Mauritius, and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
■FINANCE
Dubai World plan approved
About 99 percent of creditor banks for Dubai’s troubled Dubai World conglomerate have agreed to its debt restructuring proposal, the company said in a statement yesterday. Dubai World “has received formal agreement from over 99 percent by value and approximately 99 percent by number of its creditor banks to its restructuring proposal,” the company said.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
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