Business Briefs

DBS still hunting new CEO

Southeast Asia's largest bank, DBS Group Holdings Ltd, said it would appoint a new chief executive officer to replace Jackson Tai (戴國良) in the first quarter.

"The search committee still has some work to do," DBS chairman Koh Boon Hwee told reporters in Singapore yesterday. "You've got to hold your breath for awhile," he said, adding the search is going "very well."

Tai resigned as Singapore-based DBS's chief executive officer last year. His tenure coincided with a drive to expand overseas as foreign banks were granted licenses to compete for individual customers in Singapore.

Richard Stanley, Citigroup Inc's chief executive officer for China, emerged as the top candidate to head the Singapore bank, the Business Times reported on Thursday, without saying where it got the information.

Tai is a member of the Asia-Pacific advisory board of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.

China Airlines orders A350s

Airbus SAS, the world's largest planemaker, won an order from Taiwanese carrier China Airlines (華航) for 14 A350-900 planes valued at US$3.2 billion at list price, confirming a commitment announced last month.

China Airlines took another six A350s on option, Toulouse, France-based Airbus said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The planes will be powered by Rolls-Royce Group Plc Trent engines, the only propulsion system available for the model.

Airbus' twin-engine, long-range A350 competes with Chicago-based Boeing Co's 777 and its 787 Dreamliner, which enters service in 2009. The European planemaker won 290 orders for the A350 last year and yesterday firmed up an order from Brazil's TAM SA that includes 22 A350s.

China Airlines will use the planes starting in 2015, the carrier said last month when it announced its intention to take the planes. The airline now flies 22 A340 and A330-series aircraft.

Phoenix boosted by report

Phoenix Tours International Inc (鳳凰旅行社), Taiwan's only listed tour company, was bolstered in Taipei trading amid a slump in Asian equities by a report that Chinese cruise-ship passengers will be allowed to visit Taiwan.

Phoenix dropped 1.6 percent to NT$78.6 as the benchmark TAIEX index fell 6.5 percent. The tour company's shares earlier rose as much as 6.4 percent to a record intraday high after opening 6.9 percent down.

The plan would allow Chinese nationals to travel to Taiwan via ocean cruise ships en route to a third country, CNA reported on its Web site on Monday night, citing a government statement.

Taiwan prevents people and cargo from traveling directly between its territories and China.

Procedures have been put in place to implement the new system before Lunar New Year, which starts on Feb. 7, CNA quoted Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) as saying.

Epistar orders from Aixtron

Aixtron AG, a German maker of machines to coat semiconductors, said it received another order from Taiwan's Epistar Corp (晶元光電) for several metal organic chemical vapor deposition systems used for the production of light-emitting diodes.

The order was made in the fourth quarter, Aachen-based Aixtron said yesterday.It was the third order from Epistar for such systems, Aixtron said.

NT dollar weaker

The New Taiwan dollar yesterday weakened by NT$0.091 to close at NT$32.439 against the greenback on turnover of US$1.988 billion.