ISRAEL
Bezeq executives arrested
Police made arrests on Sunday that included senior executives from Bezeq, the country’s largest telecom group, after the Israel Securities Authority uncovered new information during an investigation into the company over possible fraud and financial reporting offenses. Israeli media reported that investigators were looking into allegations that Bezeq received benefits in return for enabling favorable media coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A spokesman for Netanyahu denied the allegations. Bezeq had no additional information on the new investigation, a company statement said.
AUTOMOTIVE
Takata bankruptcy plan okayed
A Delaware judge has approved the bankruptcy reorganization plan submitted by Japanese auto-parts supplier Takata Corp. Following a hearing on Friday last week, the judge said there was substantial and sufficient support from creditors to merit plan approval. The ruling comes after Takata reached a settlement last week with creditor groups representing current and future victims of the company’s lethally defective air bags. Takata was forced into bankruptcy last year, after the faulty inflators prompted the largest automotive recall in US history. Under the plan, Takata is to sell most of its non-air bag assets to a Chinese-owned rival for US$1.6 billion.
UNITED KINGDOM
EU trading friction to hit farms
Spare a thought for British farmers after the country’s exit from the EU. “Brexit will inevitably introduce friction to trading routes,” the House of Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said in a report calling for more funding to help food producers prepare and adopt policies. The EU is the UK’s biggest agricultural trading partner, accounting for 60 percent of Britain’s exports and 70 percent of its imports, the report said. If Britain leaves the EU without a free-trade agreement, its trade with the bloc would revert to WTO tariffs that are higher for agriculture than for other goods and services, it added.
VENEZUELA
Harvest sues former oil czar
Former oil czar Rafael Ramirez was on Friday sued by the Houston-based Harvest Natural Resources Inc, which alleges that he was behind demands for at least US$10 million in bribes to sign off on deals to sell its energy assets in Venezuela. Harvest said that starting in 2012 it refused an alleged US$10 million bribe demand from a Florida-based oil consultant who said he was acting on behalf of Ramirez, then-president of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) and Venezuelan oil minister. Harvest said that as a result of its refusal to pay up, Ramirez allegedly failed to approve its stake sale in a joint venture with PDVSA and the deal fell through. Ramirez on Friday denied asking for bribes.
INVESTMENT
Few act on market dip: survey
Only about 10 to 15 percent of investors took advantage of the recent market pullback to boost their equity allocations or put cash to work, UBS Group AG said, citing a survey of more than 1,000 high-net-worth individuals and business owners during the week of Feb. 5. Of the high-net-worth investors, 68 percent believe that now is a good time to buy equities, although 80 percent are keeping their cash holdings unchanged, according to the report dated on Feb. 14. Eighty percent think that markets are entering a period of higher volatility, although 84 percent say the dip was temporary and not indicative of a recession, it 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