■FINANCE
Taiwan may sell stake
Taiwan’s government plans to sell its 3.8 percent stake in China Development Financial Holding Co (中華開發金控) next year, the Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德). The Chinese-language newspaper said the government would sell the stake before China Development Financial elects a new board in the middle of next year.
■ELECTRONICS
Mediatek may invest in TMC
Mediatek Inc (聯發科), Taiwan’s biggest chip designer, and three other Taiwanese companies are evaluating a possible investment in Taiwan Memory Co (TMC, 台灣創新記憶體公司). Mediatek, China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) haven’t decided whether to invest in TMC, the four companies said in separate exchange filings on Friday. Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) said on Thursday its board approved plans to invest up to NT$2 billion (US$61 million) in TMC.
■AUTOMOBILES
Qatar to buy more VW
Qatar Holding has announced it will acquire a 17 percent stake in Volkswagen AG, which is merging with Porsche, in a deal that will exceed US$10 billion. This comes after the Porsche and Piech families said they would sell a 10 percent stake of their shares to the Gulf company. In a statement released late on Friday, Qatar Holding said it would now be the third largest shareholder in VW, after Porsche and Lower Saxony. The purchase follows the UAE’s Aabar Investment acquisition in March of a 10 percent stake of Daimler AG.
■BANKING
Regulators close Colonial
US regulators on Friday shut down Colonial BancGroup Inc., a lender in real estate development, in the biggest US bank failure this year, and also closed four banks in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. The closures boosted to 77 the number of federally insured banks that have failed this year, compared with 25 last year and three in 2007. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was appointed receiver of the banks: Montgomery, Alabama-based Colonial; Community Bank of Arizona, based in Phoenix; Union Bank, based in Gilbert, Arizona; Community Bank of Nevada, based in Las Vegas; and Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, located in Pittsburgh.
■INVESTMENT
Berkshire reveals purchases
Billionaire Warren Buffett’s company revealed on Friday that it had bought a new stake in medical supply company Becton, Dickinson & Co and boosted its holdings in Johnson & Johnson during the second quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc disclosed those investments and several other changes to its roughly US$49 billion US stock portfolio in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
■OIL
Petrobas profits fall 12%
Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras saw profits fall 12 percent in the second quarter of this year mainly because of lower oil prices, the company said on Friday. Net income was 7.73 billion reals (US$4.2 billion) compared with 8.78 billion reals in the same quarter last year, Petroleo Brasileiro SA said in its earnings report. The decrease was caused by a 53 percent drop in oil prices, which went from an average US$109 a barrel in the first half of last year to an average US$52 a barrel in the first half of this year.
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