■ Gaming
Melco files for IPO
Melco PBL Entertainment, the casino joint venture between Australia's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd and Hong Kong-based Melco International Development Ltd, said yesterday it has filed a registration for its US initial public offering. The joint venture, which focuses on developing casinos and resorts in Macau, has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to float 53 million American Depositary Shares on the NASDAQ, the company said in a statement.
■ Loans
Credit co-ops' ODL down
The average overdue loan ratio of the credit cooperatives run by farmers' and fishermen's associations in Taiwan stood at 8.68 percent at the end of October, down 0.15 percentage points from the previous month's level, according to tallies released yesterday by the Bureau of Agricultural Finance. As of the end of October, the combined assets of the credit cooperatives totaled NT$1.57 trillion (US$48.46 billion), down NT$5.1 billion from the previous month. The net asset value amounted to NT$87.1 billion, up NT$500 million over the previous month. The overdue loans amounted to NT$56.8 billion at the end of October, down NT$800 million from the month-earlier level.
■ Taiwan
Consumer spending picks up
Private consumer spending in the fourth quarter will increase 2.21 percent from a year ago, the highest quarterly growth this year, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) forecast on Friday. The agency also predicted that private consumer spending for the entire year will grow 1.5 percent. The third quarter saw a mere 0.4 percent increase in private consumer spending due to credit card problems, DGBAS officials said. Business revenues generated by wholesalers, retailers and restaurants -- which form the bulk of private consumption -- totaled NT$952.1 billion (US$29.4 billion) in September.
■ Semiconductors
Patent trial postponed
Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc must wait at least five more months to press claims that cellphone chip patents held by Power Integrations Inc are invalid, a federal judge ruled. In October, a jury in Delaware ordered Fairchild to pay Power Integrations US$34 million in damages for infringing patents on semiconductors in mobile-phone power cords. A trial on the patents' validity will begin tomorrow in California-based Power Integrations, with about one-tenth of Fairchild's US$1.43 billion in sales last year, has been fighting chip imports and in August won an International Trade Commission decision barring System General Corp (品佳) of Taiwan from bringing infringing chips into the US.
■ Finance
Watchdog fails consumers
Britain's financial watchdog is failing to protect consumers five years after its inception, according to a consumer body. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has a long way to go before it can claim consumers are property protected, according to the Which group. It said that the FSA "must try harder" in a number of areas -- from disclosing misleading advertising to ensuring financial advisers meet basic standards. The lack of action to name and shame those who fall foul of advertising rules or perform poorly in mystery shopping exercises limited the effectiveness of these tools to improve industry practices, Which said.
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