■ LEISURE
Hasbro to buy Cranium
The maker of Monopoly is adding to its empire of board games. Hasbro Inc, the world's second-largest toy company, has agreed to buy privately held game maker Cranium Inc. for about US$77.5 million, the companies said on Friday. Pawtucket-based Hasbro owns the board game brands Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, which make perennially popular games including Scrabble, Clue and Battleship as well as Monopoly. Cranium, based in Seattle, is best known for its Cranium board game, which requires players to hum, draw or sculpt their way to the top.
■ TRANSPORTATION
China's airports get lift
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to lend and invest a total of US$214 million in China's airports, its first foray into the sector, the Manila-based financial institution announced yesterday. The move is part of a project to develop the economy in China's western region and mobilize private sector funding for its airports so that local governments can channel funding into social welfare programs, the ADB said. The ADB will make a US$50 million equity investment in HNA Airport Holding Group Co Ltd, a private company primarily involved in the privatization of China's airports. The ADB will also extend a loan of US$164 million to the project, with risk participation from international banks.
■ RETAIL
Shops to open at ground zero
The owner of the World Trade Center site is teaming up with an Australian retailer to develop upscale stores and restaurants in the new office towers being built at the ground zero site of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved the US$1.45 billion deal on Friday with The Westfield Group, one of the world's largest mall operators. The Sydney, Australia-based retailer will contribute US$625 million and the Port Authority $825 million to build high-end stores and restaurants, half of them facing city streets that are being resurrected at the former superblock complex.
■ SUBPRIME CRISIS
Fed to auction more funds
The Federal Reserve announced on Friday that it is increasing the amount of money available to US banks through the new auction process it created to ease the severe credit squeeze. The Fed again pledged to continue the auctions "for as long as necessary." The Fed said that it will increase the amount offered at each of the next two auctions from US$20 billion to US$30 billion, a 50 percent jump. Those two auctions will be Jan. 14 and Jan. 28. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues decided to try the auction approach because banks had feared accepting direct injections would carry a stigma that would raise doubts among investors about the soundness of institutions using the discount window.
■ ENERGY
India IPO may be largest yet
India's Reliance Power Ltd plans to open its initial public offering of shares next week in what could be the country's largest listing yet, the company said. Reliance Power is a subsidiary of Reliance Energy Ltd and a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, a business conglomerate with interests in telecommunications, finance and entertainment. The planned sale of 260 million shares is expected to raise nearly US$3 billion, with shares offered in a price band of 405 rupees (US$10.30) to 450 rupees, company chairman Anil Ambani said on Friday. The IPO opens from Jan. 15 through Jan. 18.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last