The National Property Administration (NPA) said on Sunday it had filed a provisional disposition in court on Friday barring Central Motion Pictures Corp (中影, CMP) from auctioning off a piece of prime real estate in the midst of an ongoing lawsuit that prohibited the corporation from selling the property while the case was pending.
The property owned by CMP, one of the many state-owned corporations created during the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) five decades of rule, was listed as part of the KMT’s stolen assets.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has long sought to force the KMT to return its illegal assets back to the people. The previous DPP administration last year filed a breach of trust lawsuit against the KMT and demanded the party account for all of its assets.
The KMT sold off many of its businesses for cash, including CMP, which is now privately owned.
It was reported that CMP planned to auction off its New World Building near Ximending MRT Station at a floor price of NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) next Wednesday.
The 40-year old building houses an Eslite Bookstore, a movie complex with two 300-seat theaters, dozens of clothing retailers and offices.
One report quoted an unnamed NPA official saying that although the KMT was back in power, the NPA was still obligated to continue the investigation it started during the DPP era.
The suit would remain valid unless the parties involved were willing to settle or withdraw the suit, the official said.
In other words, even if the auction went successfully next week, the property would still remain frozen until the court handed down its decision, the report said.
Last December, the NPA filed a civil lawsuit to the Taipei District Court demanding CMP hand over the Ximending property.
Auction organizer DTZ Debenham Tie Leung International Property Advisers said that if sold at the floor price, the property could generate an annual income of NT$120 million (US$3.6 million) in rent.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai