■ Finance
GS bids for Takefuji stake
US investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has offered to buy a stake in Japan's biggest consumer finance firm, Takefuji Corp, for more than ?300 billion (US$2.8 billion), a report said yesterday. Under the proposal, Goldman Sachs aims to acquire half of former Takefuji chairman Yasuo Takei and his family's 60 percent stake in the company, the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. Last month the Takefuji family agreed to sell their 33.3 percent stake to US investment fund Newbridge Capital, which told them to give up the voting rights that come with their remaining stake, the daily said.
■ Trade
Japan to sign Mexico FTA
Japan's Cabinet formally approved the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) with Mexico before a meeting between the two nations' leaders. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was set to pen the agreement, only Japan's second FTA, when he met with Mexican President Vicente Fox later yesterday in Mexico City. Japan and Mexico finalized the deal in March after 16 months of negotiations, which were closely watched as an indication of Japan's willingness to open its agricultural market, a politically sensitive issue because of the country's powerful farming bloc. Under the agreement, which takes effect next April, Japanese tariffs on most Mexican produce will be lowered over three to seven years. Japan will be granted tariff-free auto imports for up to 5 percent of the Mexican market, up from the current 3 percent, and tariffs will be gradually eliminated over six years.
■ Aviation
AirAsia's IPO seen as huge
Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia is expected to raise as much as 1 billion ringgit (US$263 million) in its initial public offering (IPO) due in November, industry sources said yesterday."It could be about one billion ringgit, making it the biggest share sale this year in Malaysia," a source familiar with the listing exercise said. "The share offering is likely to happen in the middle of November," the source added. The airline is now awaiting final approval from the Securities Commission and its management board. Credit Suisse First Boston and RHB Sakura Merchant Merchant Bankers are expected to handle the IPO. AirAsia flies to 30 destinations in Malaysia and the region and hopes to fly to China by year-end. The company expects to carry about 7.5 million people next year after 6 million this year.
■ Outsourcing
GE to sell India operations
General Electric Co, a pioneer in business processing in India, is looking to reap up to US$1 billion from the disposal of outsourcing operations in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported in its Asian edition yesterday. The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said that GE was in talks to sell all or part of its outsourcing business, GE Capital Services or GECIS, a division it launched in 1993 in New Delhi as part of its GE Capital unit. The division employs 17,000 people with 12,000 at four call centers in India and another 5,000 at operations in Hungary, Mexico and China. With last year's revenues of US$400 million, GECIS is the largest business processing operation in India by a US or European company. The newspaper said that among those considering a bid was US private-equity firm Texas Pacific Group, which has had a long relationship with GE.
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
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
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
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