■BANKING
Citigroup defends conduct
Citigroup said yesterday it would defend itself against a lawsuit filed by a Singapore tycoon who alleged he lost S$1 billion (US$687 million) on trading deals due to the bank’s negligence. Oei Hong Leong (黃鴻年), one of Singapore’s wealthiest individuals, is suing Citigroup’s private banking arm for allegedly failing to give him an accurate picture of his trading exposure, leading to the losses. “We fully intend to defend our position vigorously,” a Citigroup spokesman said in a statement. It would not be appropriate to comment further as the matter is now before the courts, Citigroup said in a statement. The hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for June 23, a court official said but gave no further details.
■AUTOMOBILES
Fiat optimistic on Opel bid
Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne believes the Italian auto giant stands a more than 50 percent chance of pulling off its takeover bid for struggling General Motors’ unit Opel, La Stampa newspaper reported yesterday. “Fiat has a more than 50 percent chance of winning the battle for Opel because, at the end of the day, our offer is the only one based on industrial merit,” the paper quoted Marchionne as saying. Other suitors — Canada’s Magna and the founder of US investment fund Ripplewood — “do not have that industrial base or are really financiers,” he said. “We have seen how weak that can be with Chrysler, which was controlled by investment fund Cerebus.”
■COMPUTERS
Lenovo posts loss
Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), China’s biggest maker of personal computers, posted a full-year loss as the global recession reduced overseas sales and prompted the company to cut jobs. The net loss was US$226.4 million in the year ended March 31, compared with net income of US$484.3 million, a year earlier, Lenovo said yesterday in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. Sales from continuing operations fell 8.9 percent to US$14.9 billion. The maker of Thinkpad laptops booked US$146 million in costs for the year to cut jobs as the global recession led customers to slash orders and prompted Lenovo to scale back expansion plans in the US and Europe.
■BANKING
Temasek ups stake in CCB
Singapore’s state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings has paid US$600 million to raise its stake in China Construction Bank (CCB, 中國建設銀行), the Straits Times said yesterday. The move will take Temasek’s investment in the Chinese bank to 6.5 percent, or 14.3 billion shares, from 6 percent, the newspaper said, quoting unnamed sources. Bank of America said last week it had sold a third of its stake in CCB for US$7.3 billion to a consortium that includes Temasek Holdings, China’s Hopu Investment Management (厚樸投資管理) and China Life Insurance (中國人壽保險).
■UNITED KINGDOM
S&P downgrades economy
Standard and Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) yesterday downgraded its outlook on Britain’s economy from “stable” to “negative” because of the country’s “deteriorating public finances.” “The outlook revision is based on our view that, even factoring in further fiscal tightening, the UK’s net general government debt burden may approach 100 percent of GDP and remain near that level in the medium term,” S&P said in a statement. Britain’s public deficit ballooned to a record £8.5 billion (US$13.22 billion) last month, official data published yesterday showed.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative
TAIWAN IS TAIWAN: US Representative Tom Tiffany said the amendment was not controversial, as ‘Taiwan is not — nor has it ever been — part of Communist China’ The US House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment banning the US Department of Defense from creating, buying or displaying any map that shows Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The “Honest Maps” amendment was approved in a voice vote on Friday as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for the 2026 fiscal year. The amendment prohibits using any funds from the act to create, buy or display maps that show Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Wuciou (烏坵), Green Island (綠島) or Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as part of the PRC. The act includes US$831.5 billion in
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