■ Six continents
All Bar One up for sale
Six Continents Plc, the owner of All Bar One pubs and InterContinental hotels, may get more than £3 billion (US$4.7 billion) for its bar unit as more suitors come forward before next month's spinoff, four analysts said. The British company last week rejected a £2.8 billion bid, saying it was too low. The offer was from UK private equity firm BC Partners Ltd, people familiar with the companies said. Entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, whose earlier offer for all of Six Continents was spurned, didn't rule out a bid for the pubs. Buyers are lining up because Six Continents was able to pick the best 550 locations three years ago when it joined Punch Taverns Plc to buy pubs from Allied Domecq Plc, analysts said.
■ Australian Beef
Japan extends tariff law
Japan extended for a year a law that allows it to raise the tariff on Australian beef products by almost a third to 50 percent to prevent a surge in imports. The law, passed by the parliament on Friday, lets Japan raise its tariff on beef from Australia and other countries when quarterly beef imports rise 17 percent compared with year-earlier levels, according to the Ministry of Finance's Web site. The higher tariff, to be implemented Aug. 1, may continue until March next year, Meat & Livestock Australia, a North Sydney-based trade group, said earlier. Japan's beef consumption is recovering from a 70 percent drop last year when mad cow disease scared off consumers.
In 2001, US beef exports to Japan were worth US$1.6 billion. Australia's were worth about US$1 billion.
■ Economy
S Korea's GDP may decline
South Korea's central bank will probably cut its economic growth forecast for this year and revise other economic projections next month as global demand slows, Yonhap News reported, citing an unidentified official. The Bank of Korea may cut the growth forecast for GDP to as low as 4 percent from 5.7 percent, the report said. The economy grew 6.3 percent last year, according to the central bank. The current account, the broadest measure of a nation's flows of money, will probably turn to a deficit because of higher oil prices, from the US$3 billion surplus previously expected, the report said. Consumer prices will probably rise more than 4 percent this year, compared with the 3.4 percent expected, it said. Although Central bank Governor Park Seung and other officials have said the economy will grow slower than what was forecast in December, Bank of Korea hasn't revised its official projections.
■ Chipmakers
Japanese to raise spending
Japan's five biggest semiconductor makers may boost capital spending in their next business year for the first time in three years to stay competitive, the Nikkei English News said, citing unidentified industry officials. Spending by Toshiba Corp and four other Japanese semiconductor makers will rise 50 percent to ¥350 billion (US$2.9 billion) in the fiscal year starting next month, Nikkei said. The companies, which have cut spending since 2001 because of a slump in demand, say holding back investments will leave them behind overseas rivals, Nikkei said. Toshiba will almost double investments in the next fiscal year to ¥120 billion, from ¥66 billion this year. Renesas Technology Corp, a venture between Hitachi Ltd and Mitsubishi Electric Corp that starts this week, plans to spend ¥100 billion on its chip facilities.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary