FOREIGN
Yen overvalued: Noda
Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda yesterday said the yen was “strongly overvalued” as expectations grew that Tokyo would intervene to sell the safe-haven currency, which has risen on worries over US debt. “In principle, it is desirable for fundamentals to be reflected in the market, and in this sense, the yen is strongly overvalued,” he told a regular news conference. “Its movement continues to be one-sided.” He spoke after the yen climbed close to a post-World War II high. The US dollar fell briefly to ¥76.29 overnight, very close to its post-war low of ¥76.25 on March 17. The greenback has since firmed and was trading at ¥77.52 in early Tokyo trade yesterday.
UTILITIES
Li buys UK water provider
Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s (李嘉誠) Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (CKI, 長江基建集團) agreed to buy Northumbrian Water Group PLC for £2.4 billion (US$3.9 billion) in cash in its second UK acquisition in a year. CKI will pay £4.65 a share, according to a statement yesterday. That’s 26 percent higher than the water provider’s closing price on June 23, the day before the first press report that it was subject to takeover interest. The deal, which is subject to the approval of Northumbrian shareholders, was expected to close in October, the British firm said in a statement posted on its Web site.
BANKING
BNP Paribas profits rise
French banking giant BNP Paribas yesterday reported that second-quarter net profit rose 1.1 percent to 2.12 billion euros (US$3 billion), short of analyst forecasts, as it set aside 534 million euros to cover its Greek exposure. BNP Paribas said cumulative net profit in the first six months of the year was up 8.1 percent from a year earlier to 4.74 billion euros. It said it held 2.3 billion euros of Greek government debt maturing by 2020. The recently agreed second bailout for Athens involving private sector creditors estimates the bank would lose 21 percent on such holdings and the second-quarter provision covers this eventuality, it said in a statement.
TRADING
NYSE Euronext buys Metabit
NYSE Euronext said on Monday that it was buying Metabit, a Tokyo-based company that provides clients with high-speed access to Asian financial markets. “Japan and Asia are priorities for NYSE Euronext and we believe this is absolutely the right time to further invest in the region,” Stanley Young, chief executive of NYSE Technologies, a unit of NYSE Euronext, said in a statement. “We fully expect this transaction to accelerate our efforts as a leading technology provider across the Asia-Pacific region.” NYSE Euronext did not say how much it was paying for Metabit, which also has offices in Australia and Hong Kong. It said that it hoped to complete the acquisition in the third quarter of this year.
INTERNET
Twitter closes funding deal
Twitter said on Monday it has closed a deal for a “significant” round of new funding led by Russian investment company Digital Sky Technologies. Twitter did not reveal the amount raised, but the technology blog All Things Digital reported last month that the deal would be worth US$800 million and value the company at US$8 billion. According to All Things Digital, US$400 million of the total investment will go to the company and US$400 million will be used to cash out current investors and employees.
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
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
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