■ BANKING
Mizuho to buy CITIC shares
Japan's Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd said yesterday it planned to buy up to about US$51 million in shares in China CITIC Bank (中國國際信託投資銀行) when it goes public later this month. The Japanese bank, part of Mizuho Financial Group, said it would be a core investor in the China's seventh-largest bank when it offers 7.19 billion shares in a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, set for April 27. The exact size and price of Mizuho's acquisition has yet to be determined although the maximum will be HK$400 million (US$51.3 million) worth of shares.
■ GAMING
PBL invests in US casinos
Australian media and gaming company Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd announced yesterday it was expanding into the US gambling market by paying US$250 million for a 19.6 percent stake in US casino developer Fontaine-bleau Resorts LLC. "This transaction provides PBL Gaming with a first class entrance into the US casino resort market, in particular, the renowned Las Vegas Strip," PBL executive chairman James Packer said in a statement. The transaction is expected to be completed next month. Fontainebleau announced on Monday it is developing a US$2.8 billion casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada, expected to open in late 2009.
■ GAMING
PS3 helps Sony in `war'
The PlayStation 3's solid launch in Europe has helped the console in the "perception wars" that affected its sales in Japan, Sony chief executive Howard Stringer said in an interview published yesterday. Sony's games unit was close to selling 800,000 units of the new console in Europe where it was launched on March 22, Stringer was quoted as saying by the London-based Financial Times newspaper. "I think [in] the first two days in the UK, £100 million [US$199 million] revenue changed hands and that's probably the largest consumer electronics sale in history," he said.
■ TELCOS
Encyclopedia on cellphones
The nation's leading cellphone operator announced that users could access the Encyclopedia Britannica through their cellphones from yesterday. SK Telecom said its 20 million-odd subscribers were now able to consult the prestigious encyclopedia on their cellphones. "If you punch in your query in either Korean or English, you will get the results in both image files and texts," an SK Telecom spokesman said. The new service, which costs users up to 100 won to 150 won (US$0.11 to US$0.16) a minute, is part of the company's efforts to tap the promising cellphone-based search market.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
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