■FINANCE
SinoPac to end AIG deal
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) has decided to terminate a bancassurance cooperation agreement it inked with American International Group (AIG) in 2007, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Friday. In order to continue servicing its customers, the company said its banking unit, Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行), would sign a new pact with AIG subsidiary Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) tomorrow.
■ELECTRONICS
Ju Teng to raise funds
Ju Teng International Holdings Ltd (巨騰) said on Friday that its Taiwan depositary receipts would be listed and have their trading debut tomorrow. Ju Teng, a maker of notebook-computer casings, aims to raise HK$407 million (US$52.5 million) through the sale of the receipts after pricing the issue at NT$17.30 each. The Hong Kong-based company issued 100 million shares to back the receipts on Friday. Ju Teng operates plants in China’s Jiangsu Province and its products are used in Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc laptops.
■FINANCE
US says credit rating okay
The White House said on Friday it was not worried that the US economy’s credit rating could be downgraded after Standard and Poor’s warned Britain its top-level score was under threat. “No, we are not concerned about a change in our credit rating,” spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Standard and Poor’s said on Thursday that the British economy’s top-level “AAA” credit rating was under threat and lowered its outlook because of soaring public debt, sending financial markets reeling.
■IPR
Cartier sues Apple Inc
Luxury watch maker Cartier International has sued Apple Inc, saying the electronics giant is offering software that infringes on its designs without authorization. The trademark lawsuit was filed on Friday in federal court in Manhattan. It sought a stop to the practice and unspecified damages. Cartier said in the lawsuit that Apple is offering for sale, via its iTunes store, products that use the Cartier trademarks. It said the applications enable customers to display time on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The watch manufacturer said it never authorized Apple to use images that look like its watches on the software.
■INTERNET
Firm eyes Facebook stake
A Russian Internet group has offered to invest US$200 million in Facebook Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Friday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said it was unclear whether Facebook had responded to or decided to accept the offer from Digital Sky Technologies. The offer comes as the social-networking company has been talking to a range of venture-capital and private-equity firms about raising more money to help fuel its growth, the report said.
■BRAZIL
Real’s rise worries Brasilia
The sharp rise of the real in recent weeks has sparked worry in the government, which fears it could nip a recovery in export industries, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Friday. “This valuation of the real undermines production sectors, export sectors, agriculture etc. Thus it is a source of preoccupation,” he told reporters in Sao Paulo. The real’s rise is the result of foreign investors shoveling money back into the country as nerves calm over the effects of the crisis, he said.
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