■ Investment
LG Philips to offer IPO
LG Philips, the world's biggest flat-panel screen maker, plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) simultaneously on the South Korean and US markets in early July, financial officials said yesterday. The Finan-cial Supervisory Service said LG Philips would offer new shares worth 1.5 trillion won (US$1.27 billion) and existing shares worth 800 billion won. The Seoul flotation amounts to 500 billion won while that in the US totals 1.8 trillion won, it said. LG Philips, a joint venture between South Korea's LG Electronics and Dutch group Royal Philips Electronics NV, holds the largest share of the world TFT-LCD market with 21 percent last year. It posted an operating profit of 688.5 billion won on sales of 2.12 trillion in the first quarter.
■ Software
IBM bypasses Microsoft
International Business Machines Corp, the world's biggest computer maker, yesterday said it has developed software that will help companies avoid using Microsoft Corp's operating system, the Financial Times said, citing Steve Mills, IBM's head of soft-ware. Motorola, PeopleSoft, Adobe Systems and Siebel Systems support the tech-nology and may announce plans to develop products that support the software, the newspaper said. IBM's "client middleware" will run business applications on desktop PCs, handheld devices and some mobile phones, the Financial Times said. Companies could manage thousands of computers from a central location using the system, the paper said.
■ Petrochemicals
Refining complex planned
Sumitomo Chemical Co and Saudi Arabian Oil Co have signed an agreement to jointly build a major refining and petrochemical complex. Sumitomo will invest half of the US$4.3 billion needed to build the plant, which will be located in the town of Rabigh on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast and is scheduled to begin opera-tion in late 2008, company spokesman Hidekazu Tatemoto said yesterday. Under the project, which was signed on Sunday, the plant will produce 1.17 million tonnes of ethylene and 816,466 tonnes of propylene a year. It is expected to become among the world's largest inte-grated refining and petro-chemical complexes, Tatemoto said. The new complex will include the Saudi company's current oil refinery, with a daily production capacity of 400,000 barrels. The joint project will also include a plant to produce chemical products using natural gas.
■ Banking
Deutsche Bank on the prowl
Deutsche Bank's boss Josef Ackermann signaled an interest in acquisitions in Europe in an interview released on Sunday, but gave no details of potential targets. Ackermann's com-ments came after Chan-cellor Gerhard Schroeder said last week that Germany needs at least one global player in the banking industry and urged the country's bankers to press ahead swiftly with consoli-dation. "That won't fail because of us -- so long as it is good for our share-holders, our employees and Germany," Ackermann was quoted as saying by the Handelsblatt business daily. "We will substantially improve our market position through organic growth," he said. But "the great consolidation steps in the United States have created new challenges for most European banks. Acquisitory steps will be necessary, " he added.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique