■ TELECOMS
Sony Ericsson slips into red
Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson yesterday reported a third-quarter net loss of 25 million euros (US$33.7 million), down from a net gain of 267 million euros a year earlier. The Japanese-Swedish group also saw its operating income slump to 33 million euros from 393 million in the same period last year. “As expected the third quarter has continued to be challenging for Sony Ericsson,” company chief executive Dick Komiyama said in the earnings statement. Sony Ericsson booked sales of 2.8 billion euros in the third quarter, a 10 percent drop from the 3.1 billion euros it posted a year earlier. The company also saw the number of phones sold during the quarter slip to 25.7 million from 25.9 million a year earlier, but the figure was a slight improvement from second quarter’s 24.4 million.
■ AVIATION
Jet drops lay-off plans
India’s biggest private airline, Jet Airways, said it had dropped plans to sack hundreds of staff following angry protests. Jet chairman Naresh Goyal also apologized to the 800 people laid off earlier in the week as part of a bigger cost-cutting plan involving the shedding of 1,900 jobs. “I could not sleep at night. I was mentally disturbed when I saw tears in their eyes. I apologize for all the agony you went through,” Goyal said at a press conference in Mumbai late on Thursday. Most of the employees laid off were newly hired flight attendants and ground crew, mostly in their early 20s.
■ BANKING
Bank chief gives up bonus
Deutsche Bank head Josef Ackermann will forgo his annual bonus of several million euros to show solidarity with staff in this time of financial crisis, he told a Sunday newspaper, Bild am Sonntag, in comments to appear in its next edition. The Swiss national intended to express a “personal sign of solidarity,” which would see him do without “a few million” euros in pay. Three other senior board members at Germany’s biggest bank would follow his example, the bank said. Last year, they received a combined total of 33.2 million euros (US$44.7 million) in pay, of which 4.3 million euros were performance bonuses.
■ FINANCE
CIC to up Blackstone stake
China Investment Corp (CIC, 中國投資公司), the government’s sovereign wealth fund, may raise its stake in US investment group Blackstone LP after the two agreed to boost the Chinese company’s ownership limit. CIC had paid US$3 billion for a stake in Blackstone’s initial public offering in June last year, but has seen the value of that investment sink in the bear market, to the consternation of many in China. According to a regulatory filing, a revised agreement reached on Thursday between Blackstone and CIC unit Beijing Wonderful Investments Ltd (北京萬德福投資公司) has raised the limit on the Chinese company’s stake to 12.5 percent from 9.99 percent.
■ STEEL
Group to buy mining stake
A consortium of Japanese and South Korean steelmakers will take a US$4 billion stake in a Brazilian miner to secure supplies of iron ore, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. Five Japanese steelmakers, including Nippon Steel and JFE Steel, as well as South Korea’s Posco — will buy a roughly 40 percent stake in Nacional Minerios SA, the report said, citing unnamed company sources. The miner, a unit of Companhia Siderurgica Nacional, produces about 20 million tonnes of iron ore a year.
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
‘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)
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