■ BEVERAGES
French buys Fuji vineyard
A top French wine baron said on Thursday he had acquired a vineyard on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan, becoming the first French wine player to set up shop in the country. "I have just bought a little six-hectare domain, to produce a high-end white wine," in association with a Japanese winegrower, said Bernard Magrez, former head of the wine and spirits group William Pitters. Magrez, who owns 35 vineyards on four continents did not reveal the value of the deal but said he hoped it would help boost his sales in Japan.
■ FINANCE
SWF diversifying assets
State-backed sovereign wealth funds (SWF) are likely to diversify their investments and move away from US dollar-denominated assets, a World Bank official said yesterday. Central banks are likely to follow suit, shifting away from the US dollar over the next "three to five years," World Bank principal investment officer Arjan Berkelaar told a business conference in Sydney. SWFs, which are either government-owned or controlled, will increasingly switch from high-grade fixed income assets such as government bonds to equities and broader based assets, such as infrastructure and commodities, he said.
■ AVIATION
Talks on takeover of Alitalia
Air France-KLM is holding firm on a plan to lay off 2,100 Alitalia workers but will extend benefits to more employees under a revised takeover plan for Alitalia, ANSA news agency reported yesterday. "We cannot go further without reopening discussion of the very fundamentals of our project for Alitalia," Air France-KLM chief Jean-Cyril Spinetta wrote of the plan submitted overnight to the unions representing Alitalia employees, ANSA said. A first round of talks with the unions ended in disagreement last week. "The social measures accompanying the industrial plan are built to alleviate the more difficult situations of layoffs and offer everyone a lifeline," Spinetta said. The unions fear that job cuts could reach up to 7,000.
■ INSURANCE
Allianz mulls merger
The German insurance company Allianz is mulling contributing its banking unit, Dresdner Bank, to a three-way merger that would include Commerzbank and Deutsche Postbank, a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report said yesterday. The discussions are still at an early stage, however, and negotiations are not currently underway, it said, without naming its source. A combined bank would have clout similar to that of the biggest German bank, Deutsche Bank. Under a three-way set-up, Dresdner Bank would be transferred to Commerzbank as an asset and then the new institution would acquire Postbank, which is due to be sold in the next few months, it said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Mitsubishi Australia closing
Mitsubishi's Australian factory had built its last cars -- three of them for charities and one for permanent display -- and was to close yesterday after 28 years in operation. About 500 workers were to leave the assembly factory yesterday; 430 will stay on for a year to decommission the plant and produce a stockpile of spare parts. "While this is a very sad and poignant day, everyone at Mitsubishi has focused on all the good times we have experienced and the absolute sense of family and community we have built here," president and CEO Rob McEniry said.
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
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
‘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)