■ Finance
MBNA stalking Egg
MBNA Corp, the world's second-largest credit-card issuer, is in talks to buy Prudential Plc's 79 percent stake in the UK's No. 1 Internet bank, Egg Plc, the Sunday Telegraph said, citing bankers familiar with the deal. An agreement, which may be announced within two weeks, is likely to value Egg at about £1.4 billion (US$2.49 billion), the paper reported. The shares closed at £1.55 in London on Friday, valuing the company at £1.27 billion. MBNA's acquisition of Egg would boost the Wilmington, Delaware-based company's expansion in Europe that began in the 1990s in the UK and included the £289 million purchase of Abbey National's credit card business, according to the paper.
■ Nuclear Power
Toshiba, GE sign deal
Japan's Toshiba Corp has formed an alliance with General Electric Co in a bid to win a nuclear power plant contract in the US, Nikkei English News reported. The two companies will conduct a feasibility study on installing one of the most advanced reactors used in Japan and have filed for permission to the US Department of Energy, the report said, without saying where it obtained the information. The US suspended the construction of nuclear power plants after an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 1979. The administration of US President George W. Bush is supporting the construction of nuclear power plants in an effort to lower oil dependency from the Middle East, the report said.
■ Jewelry
Amazon challenging Zale
Zale Corp, the largest North American jewelry retailer, may be hurt by competition from Amazon.com Inc, which has recently started selling jewelry, Barron's reported in its "Up and Down Wall Street" column. Douglas Kass, a hedge fund manager at Seabreeze Partners LP, has sold Zale shares short, making a bet that their price will drop. While he has no problems with Zale's management or merchandise, he said Amazon may harm traditional jewelry retailers, Barron's said. Amazon seeks to undercut jewelry retailers' prices, Barron's said. Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of the Internet retailer, said his company would be able to save consumers money because its costs for buying, handling and shipping jewelry "aren't much higher than those of selling a book." He said conventional jewelry stores sometimes mark up items as much as 100 percent.
■ Cars
Thai exports rising
General Motors Corp, Honda Motor Co and other automakers in Thailand exported 43 percent more automobiles in the first quarter from a year earlier on rising demand in Australia and Southeast Asia. Overseas sales of pickup trucks, sedan cars and other vehicles in the January-March period rose to 73,609 units from 51,449 in the same period a year earlier, according to the Thai Automotive Club, a Bangkok-based trade group making up most of the country's automakers. The export value rose 43 percent to 32.4 billion baht (US$810 million), according to the club's data. Honda Motor, Japan's No. 3 automaker by sales and also the world's biggest motorcycle maker, said on Saturday that exports of its automobiles, motorcycles and power engines from its plants in Thailand rose 51 percent in the first quarter to 13.5 billion baht on rising demand from Australia and Asia.
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
BULLY TACTICS: Beijing has continued its incursions into Taiwan’s airspace even as Xi Jinping talked about Taiwan being part of the Chinese family and nation China should stop its coercion of Taiwan and respect mainstream public opinion in Taiwan about sovereignty if its expression of goodwill is genuine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. Ministry spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) made the comment in response to media queries about a meeting between former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) the previous day. Ma voiced support for the so-called “1992 consensus,” while Xi said that although the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have “different systems,” this does not change the fact that they are “part of the same country,” and that “external
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source