■ Stock exchange
LSE rejects NASDAQ again
London Stock Exchange PLC yesterday urged its shareholders to reject a hostile takeover bid by the NASDAQ Stock Market Inc, saying the offer was "wholly inadequate." New York-based NASDAQ has given LSE shareholders until Jan. 11 to accept its offer, which values the London exchange at ?2.7 billion (US$5.3 billion). The LSE board has already formally rejected the bid. "For the second time this year, NASDAQ is offering a wholly inadequate price for the company and shareholders should reject the offer," LSE chairman Chris Gibson-Smith said in a letter to shareholders.
■ Real estate
Land auction posts record
Hong Kong sold a rare luxury residential site at the world-famous Peak for HK$1.8 billion (US$231 million), well above market expectations. The sales price represented a record of US$42,196 per square foot (0.093m2). After half an hour of aggressive bidding, property giant Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd (新鴻基地產) won the site for a price more than double the asking bid of US$768 million and far over analyst forecasts of US$1.194 billion. The 7,353m2 former government quarters, located at 12 Mount Kellett Road, Peak Pavilions, offers a gross floor area for development of up to 3,967m2. This is the city's fourth land auction in the current fiscal year to March.
■ Insurance
China Life's IPO approved
China Life Insurance (中國人壽), the nation's largest insurer, said yesterday it won official approval for its 1.5 billion-share listing in Shanghai. Institutional subscription is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, and retail subscription is set for Tuesday, according to a company filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. The company could reportedly raise up to 28 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) from the initial public offering. The stock sale will represent 5.3 percent of the company's enlarged share capital, the company said. China Life will set its Shanghai IPO price on Friday.
■ Automobiles
Honda expects steady sales
Honda Motor Co yesterday said it expected worldwide sales to rise 5 percent to a record 3.55 million vehicles in the current year amid increased demand for its fuel-efficient and reliable models. The Tokyo-based automaker also planned to spend ?25 billion (US$211 million) to build a new engine plant in Japan to meet the expanding market, the company said in a release. Sales in the US were forecast to 3 percent to 1.51 million vehicles and those in Europe were expected to climb 8 percent to 310,000 units this year. In Asia outside Japan, Honda forecast sales would rise 4 percent to 320,000 units this year.
■ Aviation
EU agrees on emissions
The European Commission has agreed to a compromise proposal over its plans to include the aviation industry in its carbon-trading scheme, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The commission had originally planned to include all inbound and outbound air traffic in its emissions-trading scheme by 2011. According to the FT, however, the new proposals confine the scheme only to travel within the EU by 2011, and then extending it to all air traffic by 2013. The commission is expected to approve the proposal today and must be signed off by the EU member states and the European Parliament.
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