■ Finance
Mizuho may sell shares
Japan's largest lender, Mizuho Financial Group, kept quiet yesterday about a report that it planned to sell about 5 percent or US$3.5 billion of its outstanding shares as early as this month. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the group wanted to improve its capital base to fully repay a public funds injection by next July and to increase lending, particularly to smaller businesses, an area of increasing competition. "Strategic discussions about our capital [position] are always ongoing and are very important but at this point we have made no decision that should be disclosed," said a Mizuho spokesman, reading from a prepared statement.
■ Banking
CCB plans IPO
China Construction Bank (CCB, 建設銀行), the third largest lender in China, plans to raise up to US$7.64 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong with a sale of 26.49 billion shares, according to its listing perspectus released yesterday. The share sale, which will be the largest global offering so far this year and the biggest IPO in Hong Kong in four years, will be priced in a range of HK$1.80 to HK$2.25 (US$0.23 to US$0.29) each, representing 1.59 to 1.9 times the bank's book value per share last year. In June, another Chinese bank, Bank of Communications (交通銀行), offered shares at 1.6 times book value in its US$1.9 billion IPO.
■ Chemicals
Singapore mulls alternative
Singapore is considering importing methanol as an additional or alternative feedstock to boost the competitiveness of its petrochemical plants, industry sources said in a newspaper report yesterday. "We want to ride on all the activity on the gas-development front, one of the sources told the Business Times. Methanol is a byproduct of natural gas. It is easily shipped, unlike natural gas, which first has to be liquefied and then converted back into a gas at the receiving terminal. Singapore is considering bringing in methanol as an edge against new Middle East natural-gas-fueled crackers, which are facilities used to split gas molecules into their chemical components. Singapore's three existing crackers, operated by the Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) and ExxonMobile, use naphtha from oil refineries as feedstock.
■ Trade
Japan may allow US beef
Japan indicated yesterday it would likely resume importing US beef by the end of the year, paving the way to end a bitter two-year trade rift over mad cow disease fears. The lifting of the import ban would clear a major impediment in relations between the close allies before an expected visit to Japan by US President George W. Bush in mid-November. A food safety panel agreed late Tuesday that there was little risk in US or Canadian beef of the brain-wasting mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi welcomed the decision. "It would be good if we could create an environment in which safe beef enters the market," Koizumi said. Japan has been under intensifying US pressure to resume US beef imports, which were suspended in December 2003 over safety concerns after a case of mad cow disease was found in a US herd.
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)