■ENERGY
Oil firm plans dual listing
Canadian oil firm Husky Energy is planning a dual Hong Kong and Toronto listing next year in a move that could raise up to US$1 billion, a report said yesterday. The firm, controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), has held meetings with several prominent investment banks in the past few weeks and may award a mandate for the sale by the end of this month, the South China Morning Post said. Citing unnamed market sources, the newspaper said the potential size of the stake the company may offer to the public is about 25 percent, suggesting a value of up to US$4 billion for the entire firm. The catalyst for the move was recent discoveries, especially at the Liwan (荔灣) site in the South China Sea, the report said, adding a possible listing had been mooted for years. Husky owns seven exploration blocks off China’s coast, the report said.
■FINANCE
Russian banks need capital
Russian banks need US$40 billion in extra capital this year as their bad loans rise to 20 percent of their portfolios, ratings agency Moody’s said yesterday. In a report on the Russian banking sector, Moody’s said that the level of non-performing loans in Russia was 11 percent of banks’ total portfolio, but by the end of the year could reach 20 percent. “The weaker macroeconomic performance will lead to an erosion of asset quality and pre-provision income, which in turn impairs banks’ capital bases,” Semyon Isakov, the report’s author, said in a statement. The total sum of state aid for Russian banks in capital injections so far amounted to US$23.6 billion, while additional pledged support amounted to US$15.6 billion, the statement said. While this almost matches the US$40 billion recapitalization required by the banking sector, “this does not necessarily imply that the capital needs of all Russian banks will be fully met by the government,” Moody’s said.
■SOUTH KOREA
Trade surplus shrinks
The country’s trade surplus shrank to US$5.15 billion last month from a record high of US$5.79 billion in April as a stronger won weighed on exports, official data showed yesterday. Exports fell 28.3 percent last month from a year earlier to US$28.23 billion and imports plunged 40.4 percent to US$23.08 billion, the government reported. Officials said declines in both exports and imports were “inevitable” because of a high base last year. The government attributed the decline in the trade surplus to higher global oil prices, fewer working days and the won’s gains against the dollar. But exports, which account for nearly half of GDP, will perform better this month, Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said.
■ENERGY
Oil prices rise in Asia
Oil prices rose in Asian trade yesterday, fueled by a rise in regional equities markets and a weak US dollar, dealers said. New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month, rose US$0.96 to US$67.27 a barrel in the afternoon. Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month advanced US$1.04 to US$66.56. “Oil is heading up this morning. It’s actually moving in sync with stock markets in Asia ... What’s really supporting oil is primarily investors buying commodities as the US dollar weakens,” said Victor Shum, an analyst with Purvin and Gertz energy consultancy in Singapore. A weak US currency makes dollar-priced oil cheaper for holders of stronger currencies and tends to stimulate demand and push prices higher.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft