■ Finacial services
Koo Jr plans share sale
Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒), vice chairman of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), plans to sell 10 million shares in the company, Taiwan's sixth-biggest financial services provider. Koo filed for the sale with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Friday, according to the Web site of the exchange in Taipei. The planned sale is valued at NT$341 million (US$10.6 million), based on the stock's closing price of NT$34.10 on Friday. Koo's father, Jeffrey Koo Sr (辜濂松), chairman of the company, is Taiwan's fourth-richest man as ranked by Forbes.
■ Liquor
Tequila exports at new high
Production and exports of Mexico's most famous liquor reached record levels in the first half of the year, according to the tequila industry's regulatory council. Overall production hit 110.2 million liters, up from 87.4 million for the same period last year and from the previous record, 95.8 million, in 2000. Of that, 60.8 million liters were exported, up from the previous record of 54.9 million liters for the same period last year. The previous six-month production record appeared to be 97.6 million liters in the first half of 1999 as the industry headed for a record yearly output of 190.6 million liters. The first half of this year also saw record production of premium, 100 percent agave tequilas: 37.2 million liters, a jump of 84.15 percent over the first half of last year's figure of 20.2 million liters. Exports of premium tequila hit 10.5 million liters, up from 7.4 million in the same period last year.
■ Macroeconomics
Russia still lagging Portugal
Russian President Vladimir Putin's bold goal of doubling the size of the national economy in a decade and catching up with the EU's economic lightweight Portugal is looking shaky. With a GDP for last year of US$580.6 billion, according to Business Monitor International, Russia is still a comparative minnow despite its mineral resource wealth and status as the world's second-biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia. Russia's GDP per capita was US$4,065 last year, Business Monitor said, by far the lowest in the G8. Even as oil prices break new records beyond US$60 per barrel, Russia's oil and gas-dependent economy is seeing its growth flag as investment and expansion in the key petroleum sector falls. A variety of reasons are cited -- from a tough tax regime that scoops up 90 percent of everything companies earn above US$20 per barrel to fears of renationalization, spurred by the politically charged carve-up of the Yukos oil giant.
■ Oil
Partners expand China plant
Exxon Mobil Corp has started work with China's third-biggest state oil company and a Saudi partner on a US$3.5 billion project to expand a refinery in southern China. The project comes amid efforts by energy companies to tap China's market for fuel to drive its booming economy, already one of the world's biggest oil consumers, along with the US and Japan. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Friday by Exxon Mobil and its partners -- Sinopec of China and Aramco of Saudi Arabia -- in the southern city of Quanzhou in Fujian Province attended by the Saudi oil minister. The project will triple the refinery's output to 85 million barrels of petroleum a year and equip it to process imported Saudi crude, the companies said. The Chinese partner will own 50 percent of the venture and Exxon and the Saudi company will each hold 25 percent.
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