■ RETAIL
Tesco to buy Homever stores
Tesco PLC, the largest grocer in the UK, said yesterday that it is buying 36 Homever stores in South Korea for £958 million (US$1.87 billion), including existing debt. The deal to buy the shops from E-Land Group is subject to regulatory approval. Tesco’s South Korean unit, Samsung Tesco, currently operates 66 Homeplus hypermarkets and 72 Homeplus Express stores. Tesco intends to convert most of the Homever stores to the Homeplus format within a year.
■ RETAIL
Carrefour’s China profits rise
French retailing giant Carrefour, recently under fire in China from protesters opposed to French policy on Tibet, said on Tuesday that first quarter sales in China were at their best levels since 2001. Carrefour reported that revenue overall rose 10.2 percent to 23.4 billion euros (US$36 billion) in the first three months of the year from the same period last year, driven by activities in Asia and Latin America. Sales in China in the quarter surged 18.5 percent to 1 billion euros. “Chinese operations registered their best performance since 2001 ... in both food and non-food activities,” the company said. Hundreds of protesters gathered earlier this month at Carrefour outlets in several Chinese cities, state press reports said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota may build new plant
Toyota Motor Corp said yesterday it was considering building a new plant to make low-cost, small cars for emerging markets. The automaker, which has announced plans to open a small-car plant in India, is in the early stage of planning for a second factory in an emerging country, a company spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. Toyota has not decided details such as the location, production capacity and the timeline for the plant, she said. The Tokyo Shimbun regional newspaper reported yesterday that Toyota is eyeing a factory in Brazil for a launch in 2011 for the fast-growing auto markets in South America.
■ ELECTRONICS
Samsung CEO resigns
Samsung Electronics Co, Asia’s largest maker of chips, mobile phones and flat screens, said chief executive officer Yun Jong-yong resigned after more than a decade on the job. Lee Yoon-woo, 61, formerly the chief representative of the external relations team, was named new chief executive officer, Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Yun, 64, who will remain with the company as an adviser, quit as he believed “it was the right time” to let someone take over, Samsung said. The reshuffle, which is effective immediately, follows the resignation of Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee from the board of Samsung Electronics, after he was charged with tax evasion and breach of duty last month.
■ CLOTHING
Nike may buy Asian rival
Nike Inc could buy a Chinese or Japanese rival to strengthen its presence in Asia, the brand president of the world’s largest maker of athletic footwear and apparel told a German newspaper. Asked in an interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung whether Nike planned to buy an Asian brand such as China’s Li Ning, brand president Charlie Denson said: “There could indeed be a takeover in China or Japan. However, our main focus is first to build Nike up in China,” he was quoted as saying in the newspaper yesterday. “The strengthening of our other brands there, such as Converse or Umbro, will follow.”
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
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
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
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