■ Korean Economy
Listed firms' profits surge
The combined net profit of 531 South Korean listed companies on the Korea Stock Exchange doubled year-on-year to 49.5 trillion won (US$49.1 billion) on brisk exports and low interest rates, the country's main bourse said yesterday. Combined sales rose 17.1 percent year-on-year to 608.4 trillion won last year with operating profit jumping 45.1 percent to 58.1 trillion won, it said. Profitability improved with the operating-income-to-sales ratio rising to 9.69 percent last year from 8.68 percent the previous year, it said. The average debt-to-equity ratio dropped to 91.26 percent last year from 103.91 percent a year earlier as cash-rich companies focused on repaying debts rather than investment or other capital outlays.
■ Telecoms
Virgin eyes Indian partner
Virgin Mobile Holdings Plc, owned by billionaire Richard Branson, is in talks with three Indian mobile operators about a partnership in the country, The Business said, citing an unidentified source close to the talks. Virgin has been in negotiations with Bharti Telecom Ltd.'s Airtel, Tata and Mahanagar Telephone Niga Ltd., India's biggest phone company, about an alliance, the newspaper said. Virgin may pick a partner within weeks, the newspaper reported. Virgin plans to use the infrastructure of its Indian partner company to avoid further investment and will sell Virgin-branded mobile phones, the newspaper said.
■ Auto industry
Honda to cut emissions
Honda Motor Co will cut carbon dioxide emissions from its factories by 30 percent under plans for Japan to meet Kyoto Protocol goals, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. Under the protocol, Japan is required to cut CO2 and other heat-trapping gases by 6 percent between 2008 and 2012, from 1990 levels, the report said. Honda will cut emissions to 390,000 tonnes by the fiscal year ending March 2011 by using liquified natural gas to run boilers for foundry and other processes at a plant in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, in the year starting April next year, the paper said.
■ Japan banking
Mizuho to dissolve units
Mizuho Financial Group Inc will close earlier than planned units it set up to write off bad loans, as the bank estimates it cut non-performing assets to less than 2.5 percent of lending last month, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. The lender in July 2003 moved ?4 trillion (US$37 billion) of loans owed by about 1,000 companies to the units of Mizuho Trust & Banking Co, Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd and Mizuho Bank Ltd, the paper reported, without saying where it got the information. The units will be dissolved by the end of September, six months earlier than planned, the newspaper reported.
■ Finance
HSBC mulls Morgan bid
HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank by market value, is considering a £40 billion (US$75 billion) bid for Morgan Stanley, The Independent on Sunday reported, citing unidentified sources at HSBC. Senior directors at HSBC's investment banking unit have been pressing the company's chairman Sir John Bond to weigh a possible purchase of the world's second-biggest securities firm, the paper reported. The directors pointed out that Morgan Stanley's Dean Witter retail division in the US would complement that of HSBC, the newspaper said.
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