■ Advertising
Internet ad market up 40%
Internet advertising revenues jumped 40 percent in the first half of this year, driven largely by the growing popularity of keyword ads tied to search results. US revenues for the first six months were US$4.6 billion, compared with US$3.3 billion for the same period last year, according to a Pricewater-houseCoopers study conducted for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Search made up 40 percent of the ad revenues in the second quarter of this year, compared with 29 percent in the year-ago period. Ad revenues from e-mail marketing dropped 29 percent in the second quarter to US$47 million as many Internet users equated legitimate pitches with spam.
■ Petroleum
China begs Yukos for oil
China's foreign ministry called on OAO Yukos Oil Co to maintain crude supplies to the country after Russia's largest oil exporter said it will cut shipments because it can't pay rail bills. "We hope Yukos will fulfill its contractual obligations with respect to China," Kong Quan (孔泉), foreign ministry spokesman, said at a regular briefing in Beijing. Yukos will suspend crude supplies to China National Petroleum Corp, the nation's biggest oil company, on Sept. 28 and will cut its exports by 1 million tonnes through to the end of this year, the Russian company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Yukos can't pay rail bills because of a freeze on the company's bank accounts by the Russian government, which claims it's owed US$7.5 billion bill in back taxes and penalties, Sergei Pris-yazhniuk, Yukos' China representative, said.
■ Offerings
Hutchison files for IPO
Underwriters for Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd on Monday filed for an initial public offering worth around US$1 billion. Hutchison Telecommunications is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa. It provides cellular and fixed-line telephone services in Europe, Asia and Africa. The company filed on Monday to sell 69.3 million American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), with an estimated price range of US$12.67 to US$14.67 per ADR. Some of those shares will be sold in Hong Kong instead. Each ADS will represent 15 Hong Kong shares, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The selling holder has also granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 11,550,000 additional ADRs to cover overallotments, the filing said. For the six months ended June 30, Hutchison Telecom reported a net profit of US$69 million, the filing said.
■ Airlines
Retired pilots recalled
Delta Air Lines Inc's pilots' union agreed on Monday to allow the struggling carrier to recall retired pilots on a limited basis to help prevent the grounding of flights due to staff shortages. The move came after the company agreed not to terminate the pilots' pension plan before February even if the company files for bankruptcy in the meantime. The tentative agreement must be ratified by the 7,500 active Delta pilots. The agreement still does not resolve Delta's larger problem of getting the pilots to agree to US$1 billion in concessions. The Atlanta-based airline has also warned of the possibility of a Chapter 11 filing without the concessions.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2