Business Briefs

■ Rebar shares to delist
Shares of financially troubled China Rebar Co (中國力霸) and Chia Hsin Food & Synthetic Fiber Co (嘉新食品化纖) will be delisted from the Taiwan Stock Exchange on April 11, according to their filings to the stock exchange yesterday.
Stocks of China Rebar and Chia Hsin, subsidiaries of the scandal-embroiled Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團), were suspended from trading in January after the firms declared insolvency.
The two firms said they would apply to have their stocks traded instead on the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market.

■ Gas prices reduced
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) announced yesterday that it would cut wholesale gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.3 per liter beginning today.
The adjusted retail price for 98-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$28.5, while 95-octane gasoline will cost NT$27, 92-octane gasoline will cost NT$26.3 and top-grade diesel oil will be NT$23.2 per liter, the company said in a statement.
Rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said it would lower its prices to match CPC Taiwan's.

■ Bad debt rises
The bad debt ratio of 41 local banks increased to 2.28 percent at the end of January, up from 2.13 percent one month earlier, after two bankrupt affiliates of the Rebar Group added an extra NT$27.5 billion (US$834 million) of defaulted loans, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
Bowa Bank (寶華銀行) saw a drop of over NT$20 billion, or 14 percent, in deposits after a run on Rebar's The Chinese Bank (中華銀行) that caused a loss of NT$45 billion in deposits in January, the data showed.