■ Indexes
Google to join S&P 500
Google Inc will be added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index after a fourfold surge in its shares that valued the world's most-used Internet search engine at more than US$100 billion. "Based on the calendar of publicly announced deals, this was the best time to make the addition," said David Guarino, a S&P spokesman in New York. "The stock price wasn't a factor in our decision." Google is the biggest company ever added to the S&P 500, according to Nicholas Gulden, an analyst at Citigroup Inc in New York. The stock will become the highest-priced among the index's members, surpassing Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
■ Semiconductors
Siemens offloads Infineon
Siemens AG, Europe's largest engineering company, is selling its entire 18 percent stake in Infineon Technologies AG, worth about 1.2 billion euros (US$1.4 billion), in a placement managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Munich-based Siemens is selling 136.3 million shares in Germany's largest maker of semiconductors, Goldman said in a statement on Thursday. The sale comes 14 months after Klaus Kleinfeld took over as Siemens' chief executive officer and completes the company's retreat from the chipmaker it spun off in an initial public offering six years ago. Kleinfeld has announced almost 7,000 job cuts, mainly at the telecommunications and computer-services divisions, and has sold the unprofitable mobile-phone unit to Taiwan's BenQ Corp (明基).
■ Banking
Brokerage to buy Tokyo Star
Japan's third-largest brokerage Nikko Cordial plans to buy a controlling stake in a Tokyo bank revived by US private equity fund Lone Star for more than US$1.2 billion, a report said yesterday. Nikko Cordial will soon launch a tender offer to buy up to 50 percent of shares in Tokyo Star Bank, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, adding the broker aimed to get at least one-third of the shares to become the top shareholder. Lone Star, which holds nearly 70 percent of outstanding shares in Tokyo Star, plans to sell its control over the bank, the economic daily said without naming sources. The acquisition price is likely to exceed ?140 billion (US$1.2 billion), the paper said. The deal between Nikko Cordial and Lone Star would mark the first instance in Japan of a brokerage purchasing a bank, the Nihon Keizai said.
■ Automobiles
GM to sell mortgage arm
General Motors Corp said on Thursday that its finance arm is raising nearly US$9 billion in cash by selling a majority interest in its commercial mortgage division in a move that spruces up the books of the auto loan and insurance business the struggling automaker is trying to sell. General Motors Acceptance Corp is getting US$1.5 billion in cash from an investment group for a 78 percent stake in the commercial mortgage business. In addition, that business, known as GMAC Commercial Holding Corp, repaid US$7.3 billion in intercompany loans. That boosts the total proceeds to GMAC to almost US$9 billion. The announcement comes a day after GM and its major supplier, Delphi Corp, said they plan to offer buyouts to more than 125,000 hourly workers under an agreement with the United Auto Workers. Workers are expected to start leaving GM by June 1.
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
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
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,
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the