■BANKING
Commerzbank asks for cash
Commerzbank, the second-biggest German bank, took the plunge and said yesterday that it would ask the government for 8.2 billion euros (US$10.5 billion) in cash and 15 billion euros more in debt guarantees. Commerzbank also posted a third-quarter net loss of 285 million euros and an operating loss of 475 million euros. The international financial crisis cost the bank 1.1 billion euros in losses from market operations, the statement said. Commerzbank said it had increased loan loss provisions to 628 million euros from 414 million euros, a sign the bank expects more turbulence in the future.
■BANKING
BPN to be nationalized
Portugal is planning to nationalize the troubled Banco Portugues de Negocios (BPN) in yet another rescue of a financial institution, Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos announced on Sunday at the end of a special Cabinet session. The government of Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates is to propose the nationalization before parliament, the finance minister said. BPN recently reported loses of 700 million euros and finds itself on the edge of bankruptcy, dos Santos said, adding that there were no prospects of the bank acquiring new reserves of liquidity any time soon.
■TECHNOLOGY
Hynix debt rating cut
Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, had its debt rating cut to three levels below investment grade at Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the company’s weaker credit profile and earnings. Hynix’s corporate family and senior unsecured bond ratings were cut to Ba3 from Ba2, affecting about US$500 million in debt securities, Moody’s said in a statement yesterday. Moody’s has a negative outlook on the ratings. The downgrade brings Hynix’s ratings at Moody’s in line with those assigned at Standard & Poor’s, which last week changed the outlook on the South Korean chip maker’s debt to negative. Hynix on Oct. 30 reported its biggest loss in at least seven years after a glut drove down prices of computer memory chips.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Economy to shrink next year
The economy will shrink for the first time since 1991 next year and debt will surge to more than 60 percent of GDP as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ramps up spending, European Commission forecasts showed. The economy will contract 1 percent after expanding 0.9 percent this year, the EU’s executive arm said in a report published in Brussels yesterday. It will grow 0.4 percent in 2010. Debt will be 50.1 percent of GDP this year, 55.1 percent next year and 60.3 percent in 2010, the commission said. Brown and Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Alistair Darling signaled last week they would abandon a decade-old pledge to limit debt to 40 percent of GDP as they try to ease the effects of a likely recession on consumers and companies.
■METALS
Demand outstrips supply
China, the world’s largest consumer of aluminum, may need four times as much scrap aluminum as can be produced domestically, the China National Resources Recycling Association said. Scrap aluminum consumption may grow 25 percent to 11.8 million tonnes next year, whereas domestic output may rise by a similar rate to 3.3 million tonnes, the association said yesterday at a conference in Shanghai.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2