■ Memory Chips
ProMOS plans bond sale
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), Taiwan's third-biggest maker of computer memory chips, plans to raise US$300 million in a convertible bond sale to fund expanded production. The company can increase the sale by US$50 million should investor demand warrant, according to a sale document sent to investors. Investors can exchange the five-year zero-coupon bonds for ProMOS shares at a 15 percent to 21 percent premium to Friday's closing price of NT$12.35, it said. ProMOS plans to spend US$7 billion in the next three years adding two plants in the central part of the nation.
■ Holiday Travel
Mandarin flights start soon
Mandarin Airlines (華信航空), a subsidiary of Taiwan-based China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), will launch Lunar New Year direct cross-strait charter flight services on Tuesday with a Taipei-Shanghai round-trip flight, a CAL spokesman said yesterday. CAL and Mandarin Airlines will provide a total of 16 charter flights between Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan and Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China from Tuesday to Feb. 25. CAL will launch its first flight, also a Taipei-Shanghai round-trip flight, on Wednesday, and its first Kaohsiung-Shanghai round-trip flight on Feb. 16.
■ Online piracy
Flask copier wins golden pig
Germany on Friday handed a mock award -- a black dwarf with a golden nose -- to a Chinese manufacturer, among others, to draw attention to the growing threat of piracy around the globe. The Chinese manufacturer, He Shan Jia Hui Vacuum Flask & Vessel, has "brazenly copied" a made-in-Germany coffee thermos, said Germany's organization against plagiarism, which hands out such awards annually. "Product piracy threatens our economic growth and jobs," German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said at a ceremony in Frankfurt. The golden nose of the dwarf, which is dubbed "Plagiarius," refers to a German proverb that refers to making a lot of money without hard work.
■ Gas appliances
Rinnai checks water heaters
Rinnai Corp, Japan's largest manufacturer of gas appliances, said yesterday that it had begun providing free inspections of its water heaters throughout Japan following a series of carbon monoxide poisonings linked to three deaths and 12 other injuries, officials said. The three deaths occurred since October 2003, including the most recent case this week in Kanagawa, just south of Tokyo, and the 12 injuries were reported between January 2000 and December 2004, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a press release issued late on Friday. Rinnai said the models are sold only in Japan.
■ Cellphones
Hutchison Essar mulls bids
Britain's Vodafone Group PLC and India's Reliance Communications have put in bids to buy Hutchison Essar Ltd, one of India's leading cellphone companies, news reports said yesterday. The board of Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd -- a holding company of Hong Kong based Hutchison Whampoa that owns a controlling 67 percent stake in the Indian company -- is expected to meet today to discuss the bidding process, the Hindustan Times newspaper said. Essar Group, an Indian major with businesses ranging from shipping to energy and which controls the remaining 33 percent stake in Hutchison Essar, has also put in its bid, the newspaper said.
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