■ FINANCE
ABN Amro to sell two units
ABN Amro Holding NV, the target in the world's biggest banking takeover battle, agreed to sell two Dutch consumer finance businesses for an undisclosed amount to a Credit Agricole SA unit. Credit Agricole's Sofinco will acquire the total capital of Interbank NV and DMC Groep NV, Amsterdam-based ABN Amro said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Interbank had 2 billion euros (US$2.74 billion) outstanding by the end of next year, the Dutch lender said. Paris-based Credit Agricole is France's second-biggest bank by assets.
■ JAPAN
Jobless rate drops
Japan's jobless rate fell to its lowest in more than nine years and household spending inched up in June, the government said yesterday, a pair of numbers that could help the Bank of Japan make the case for raising interest rates next month. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.7 percent in June from 3.8 percent in May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. That's the lowest since 3.6 percent in February 1998. Separately, the ministry said overall household spending in the world's No. 2 economy rose 0.1 percent in June in real terms from a year earlier, suggesting consumer spending is slowly but steadily increasing.
■ INFRASTRUCTURE
CitySpring to buy sea cable
A Singapore infrastructure investor said yesterday that it would buy a sub-sea electricity cable in Australia for A$1.175 billion (US$1 billion). Singapore's CitySpring Infrastructure Trust, which is backed by state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, will buy the Basslink cable from British utility National Grid Transco PLC, CitySpring's Chief Executive Fai Au Yeung said. It will fund the purchase through a combination of 75 percent debt and 25 percent equity, Au Yeung said. "Whether that's through a placement or rights offering, we're still looking at it," he said. The 370km Basslink cable is the world's longest underwater power cable.
■ BUYOUTS
Goldman Sachs wins suit
Goldman Sachs Group Inc won a negligence lawsuit brought by Belgian investment company IFE Fund SA, which claimed the bank misrepresented the financial state of the bankrupt Finelist Group Plc. The Court of Appeal in London today dismissed IFE's lawsuit over the financing. Finelist collapsed a few months after the takeover. A group of buyout firms sought to expand the UK auto parts distributor by combining its operations with French rival Autodis SA. Instead, the company was placed into administration less than six months later amid allegations of extensive "check kiting," where checks were passed between units to distort account balances.
■ TELECOMS
Alcatel-Lucent posts loss
Alcatel-Lucent, a French-US telecommunications equipment maker, yesterday reported a second quarter net loss, accompanied by a sales slump, but maintained its yearly projections. The company said it sustained a net loss of 336 million euros (US$460 million) in the April to June period compared with a profit of 302 million euros in the same quarter last year. Second quarter sales fell 4.0 percent to 4.32 billion euros, consistent with market expectations.
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