■ INVESTMENT
Tingyi plans TDR sale
Tingyi Holding (Cayman Islands) Corp (康師傅控股) may sell more than NT$10 billion (US$309 million) in shares in the form of Taiwan depository receipts (TDRs), the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing unnamed brokerages. Tingyi Holding is 36.6 percent owned by Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), which operates the biggest instant noodle maker in China and runs Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) in Taiwan. The paper said Ting Hsin was assessing the possibility of allowing Tingyi to issue TDRs and might submit its application to the Taiwan Stock Exchange by the first quarter of next year. No decision has been made yet, the paper said, citing sources from Ting Hsin.
■EMPLOYMENT
PRC migrants back at work
Nearly all the migrant Chinese workers laid off last year during the global economic crisis have returned to jobs in the cities because of an improvement in the employment situation, an official said yesterday. “Currently, 96 percent [of] rural workers who went back to the countryside have already returned to the cities to work or do business,” vice agriculture minister Chen Xiaohua (陳曉華) told reporters. “In certain places, there are even problems of a lack of workers.” By the latest estimate, China had 225 million migrant workers.
■INVESTMENT
Toyota lifts sales forecast
Toyota Motor Corp has raised its global sales forecast for the year to March next year by 3 percent to 6.7 million cars, the Tokyo Shimbun daily reported yesterday, in the latest sign of a nascent recovery in auto demand. Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, is also raising its production in Japan by 8 percent to 6.45 million vehicles for 2009-2010, thanks to the impact of government subsidies and tax incentives on new fuel efficient cars, the paper said.
■AUTOMAKERS
Ford Canada to cut output
The Canadian Auto Workers union says Ford Canada intends to slash its Canadian manufacturing production from 13 percent of the company’s total North American output to 8 percent despite requests from its union to the contrary. Ford and the union have been negotiating a new labor contract since Sept. 8, but the two sides have reached an impasse over how much production the company intends to keep in Canada.
■LABOR
Argentine workers removed
Argentine police have used force to remove laid-off workers occupying a Kraft Foods plant in Buenos Aires since last month. The court-ordered evacuation could resolve a standoff that started when Kraft Foods Inc laid off about 160 of the plant’s several thousand workers. The union demanded the jobs back and seized the plant. They also occupied a major freeway, demanding government help. Argentina’s labor ministry and company executives met on Friday, reaching a deal to resume operations tomorrow morning and keep the plant’s remaining jobs.
■BANKING
BBVA to sell properties
Spain’s second-largest bank, BBVA, said on Friday it had reached an agreement to sell 948 property assets in Spain to a Deutsche Bank investment fund for 1.15 billion euros (US$1.7 billion) in a “sale and leaseback” deal. The sale of the assets, “most of which are offices,” will book BBVA some 830 million euros in gross capital gains, it said in a statement.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
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