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Business Quick Take

■ Economy
Minister visits Swaziland
Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) left for Swaziland yesterday for the 10th Taiwan-Swaziland meeting on economic cooperation slated for tomorrow and Tuesday. The meeting is aimed at boosting economic relations between the two countries. Swaziland is one of Taiwan's key economic and trade partners in southern Africa. Two-way trade reached US$23.23 million last year between the two countries, up from US$2.7 million in 2000. In the January-October period this year, bilateral trade between the two amounted to US$24.23 million, posing a year-on-year growth of 22 percent.

■ Microchips
UMC sells ProMOS shares
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest supplier of made-to-order chips, said it sold some of the ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德) shares it has been buying since July. The Hsinchu-based company sold 42.38 million ProMOS shares, representing a 0.7 percent stake, for NT$610.3 million (US$19 million), UMC said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange late on Friday. The stock was sold between Nov. 15 and Friday at an average price of NT$14.4 per share, a profit of NT$60.7 million, the statement said. The sale was a "financial arrangement," the statement said, without elaborating. UMC still holds an 8 percent stake of ProMOS, it said. ProMOS is Taiwan's third-largest maker of computer memory chips.

■ Economy
Beijing tries to cool off
China's central bank confirmed yesterday that it has told banks to buy the 160 billion yuan (US$20 billion) bond issue in the government's latest effort to rein in a lending boom and cool off the sizzling economy, a state news agency reported. The latest order applied to 20 institutions, including the top five state-owned banks and 10 other commercial banks, the Xinhua news agency said. So far this year, China's central bank has issued 410 billion yuan in bonds designated to reduce lending, Xinhua said.

■ Automobiles
Maker recalls Passat
Automaker Volkswagen on Friday ordered the recall of 300,000 of its Passat models worldwide owing to problems with the windshield wipers, fuel system and brakes. The models affected were produced since last year. In some, the electrical feed to the windshield wipers broke down when exposed to moisture during heavy rain, the German company said in a statement. In addition, diesel-powered vehicles must be inspected for a possible fuel leakage. And defective brakes were found in some models with 200 horsepower engine.

■ IPO
Port builder sells shares
China Communications Construction Co (中國交通建設), the country's largest port builder, raised HK$16.1 billion (US$2.1 billion) in its Hong Kong initial public offering, bankers involved in the sale said. The company sold 3.5 billion new shares, representing a 24.5 percent stake, at HK$4.60 apiece, the top end of the range offered to investors earlier, the two bankers said, asking not to be identified before a company announcement. Demand for orders from institutional investors amounted to US$162 billion, the bankers said. China Communications controls 90 percent of the market to design and build ports in China and has a 74 percent share of the global quayside crane market, according to research by the sale's arrangers.


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