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■ Electronics
Flat-panel sector up 30.8%
The total production value of Taiwan's flat-panel display industry posted a 30.8 percent increase last year to reach NT$1.27 trillion (US$38.6 billion), thanks to rising demand, according to statistics released on Friday by the Industrial Technology Research Institute. The total production value this year is likely to reach NT$1.45 trillion, institute analysts said. As the price of liquid-crystal TVs is falling, the sales are expanding, the analysts said, adding that this would also help increase sales of large TFT-LCD panels. The analysts said that to cope with falling prices, manufacturers needed to have flexible production capabilities and improve their supply efficiency.

■ Stock options
HP faces US Senate probe
Hewlett-Packard Co said that it is facing a US Senate investigation into a stock option debacle that it inherited last year with its US$4.9 billion acquisition of software maker Mercury Interactive Corp. HP has been asked for more information about Mercury's alleged mishandling of stock options in a request received on Feb. 26 from an investigative arm of the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. The Senate's interest in Mercury threatens to create more legal headaches for HP, which has spent much of the past six months trying to make amends for a company-approved investigation that obtained personal information under false pretenses about more than a dozen HP directors, journalists and their families.

■ Furniture
Vietnamese workers strike
Demanding higher pay, 3,000 Vietnamese workers unexpectedly walked off the job at a Taiwanese-owned furniture factory in southern Vietnam, state media and company officials reported yesterday. Staff at Vietnam Green River Wood and Lumber in Binh Duong Province complained that new employees were earning as much as workers with more seniority, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported. Nguyen Thi Mai, a company human resources official, said the workers didn't inform the trade union or the company before starting their strike on Friday. In Vietnam, strikes that do not go through trade unions are illegal.

■ Automakers
GM expects quarterly profit
General Motors Corp says it will do something this week that's a rarity these days for US-based automakers: report a profit. Analysts don't expect the profit to be huge, but say it's a sign that GM's restructuring plan, or at least its massive cost cuts, is beginning to take hold. The world's largest automaker reported losing US$3 billion through the first nine months of last year and US$10.6 billion in 2005. If GM delivers on the quarterly net profit, it would be its first since the fourth quarter of 2004, when it made US$630 million.

■ Aviation
Malaysia Airlines to sell land
Malaysia Airlines plans to sell off property, including a piece of freehold land and a building which it currently operates from, to the government's pension fund. The sale, worth 145 million ringgit (US$41.4 million), to the Employees Provident Fund is part of the airline's restructuring plan, the carrier said late on Friday in a statement to Malaysia's bourse. Last year, the loss-making national carrier disposed of its headquarters and other buildings as part of the restructuring exercise, which has also seen it axing unprofitable air routes.


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