■ Japanese finance
Corporate debt falls
Combined debt at publicly traded Japanese companies has fallen below US$892 billion for the first time in 10 years, signaling reinvigorated corporate finances as the economy rebounds, Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper reported yesterday. The debt totaled US$866 billion at the end of March, down US$62.5 million from a year earlier and down 24 percent from the peak in 1997, the business daily said, citing its own survey of 1,181 companies. The trend indicates companies are both repaying debts and increasing the amount of cash they have on hand, with one-third of the polled companies being completely debt free, the report said. As companies build their cash reserves, it could spur a round of mergers and takeovers, the newspaper said.
■ Automotive
Takeover of VW possible
Volkswagen AG could become a takeover target for investors who wanted to break up the company to make a profit, Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder told Braunschweiger Zeitung in an interview. Some investors might buy stakes in Volkswagen with the aim of breaking up the company because its actual value is higher than its market value, Pischetsrieder told the newspaper. If two or three funds worked together, they could gain a voting majority with a low turnout at a shareholder meeting, he said. A retirement program may allow Volkswagen to eliminate about 6,000 workers in six western German factories over the next three years, Pischetsrieder told Braunschweiger, reiterating that the company doesn't plan to close facilities or fire workers.
■ Aviation
Strike grounds flights
South African Airways, the largest airline in Africa, canceled all international flights "until further notice," as a strike by cabin crew and ground staff entered its second day. Wage talks between management and labor unions including the United Association of South Africa, which represents most of the airline's ground staff and cabin crew, deadlocked on July 21. The union wants an 8 percent pay increase. The company is offering 5 percent. South African annual inflation is 3.9 percent now. "South African Airways has canceled all its regional and international flights until further notice following industrial action by the airline's cabin crew and ground staff," the Johannesburg-based airline said in an e-mailed statement today.
■ Semiconductors
Executive gives up bribe
A former executive of the German chip and semi-conductor manufacturer Infineon has handed over a bribe he took from a Swiss firm, a company spokesman said Saturday. Harald Eggers, currently head of a Swiss technology company Unaxis, is accused by prosecutors in the southern city of Munich of having taken a bribe of US$60,000 from a business agency BF Consulting. The German news magazine Der Spiegel puts the sum at US$50,000. "Mr. Eggers has paid back the amount the group was asking for," an Infineon spokesman said. According to the prosecutor's office the former head of the memory division of the Bavarian computer chip giant Andreas von Zitzewitz took US$311,000 from BF Consulting in return for business favours. Infineon said Friday it was calling in outside investigators to examine the company's internal system of checks and controls.
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)