Long Life brand row settled
Taiwan and China finally settled a trademark dispute over who can sell a brand of cigarettes with the curious name "Long Life," an official said yesterday.
For years, the state-run Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Company has been marketing the brand, but three years ago, China's Xunyang Tobacco Group registered the "Long Life" trademark in China, barring others from selling the brand on Chinese soil, said Cheng Jen-wei, vice president of the Taiwanese firm.
After months of negotiations, a deal was struck that involved the Taiwanese firm giving up the trademark to its "Zhonghua," brand -- a name also used by a cigarette company in China that hopes to make headway in the Taiwan market.
In exchange, the Taiwanese firm can register its "Long Life" trademark in China, Cheng said.
Business ties have become even stronger since a year ago when the two entered the World Trade Organization, which encourages free trade among members. But old disputes over brand names used in both markets still persist and need to be sorted out.
State firms' budgets slashed
Lawmakers pared the budget for state-owned companies by more than NT$100 billion (US$2.9 billion) this year -- a record cut, a Chinese-language daily reported without citing its source.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) and Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) are among the companies that will have to work with smaller budgets, the paper said.
Taipower had its planned expenses cut by as much as NT$75 billion. Chinese Petroleum's budget was cut by more than NT$20 billion. Taiwan Sugar's planned investments were scrapped, the newspaper said.
The Legislative Yuan in January passed a budget that projected a NT$237.4 billion deficit for this year. The economy grew 3.5 percent last year, recovering from a record slump in 2001.
Taipower to raise bond sales
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), Taiwan's biggest corporate bond issuer, may boost debt sales by more than a third this year to as much as NT$82 billion (US$2.4 billion), taking advantage of investor demand for fixed-income securities.
The state-owned utility said on March 12 it will sell a total NT$17.3 billion of debt this month, made up of a NT$7 billion sale of five-year bonds, NT$6.7 billion of seven-year bonds and NT$3.6 billion of 10-year bonds. KGI Securities Co (中信證券), who is managing the sale, said the settlement date will be April 28. Taiwan Power has NT$172.9 billion of debt securities, according to Bloomberg data.
The company will benefit from record low interest rates as investors seeking alternatives to sliding stock markets buy bonds.
The bonds yield more than government debt and have the top credit rating from Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), a joint venture between Standard & Poor's and the government.
ProMOS plans share sale
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) said it plans to raise US$192.8 million in an overseas share sale. The company didn't say how it will use the funds.
The company plans to sell 650 million shares, it said in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange. The price implies a premium of about 27 percent to today's closing price of NT$8.15.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar rose against its US counterpart on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, gaining NT$0.026 to close at NT$34.818.
Turnover was US$381 million.
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