■BANKING
Nationalization plan passed
Shareholders of battered German lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG voted on Tuesday to approve a government plan to nationalize the bank by means of a capital increase. The extraordinary general meeting was the last step in a plan to bring the Munich-based bank under the ownership of the government’s financial sector rescue fund. The government fund secured 47.3 percent of Hypo Real Estate’s shares under a voluntary offer last month. Tuesday’s approval gives it a capital increase to a 90 percent stake, allowing it to squeeze out remaining shareholders.
■INTEREST RATES
Indonesia cuts key rate
Indonesia’s central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 7 percent yesterday, seeking to spur spending amid a sharp economic slowdown. It was the seventh month in a row Bank Indonesia cut the lending rate, hoping to counter plunging exports. The rate stood at 9.5 percent in November. The bank said it had concluded from close monitoring of international developments that “ongoing pressure on Indonesia’s exports persist.” Indonesia’s economy was expected to grow between 3 percent and 4 percent this year, down from an earlier forecast of 6 percent, the bank said. That was the same forecast as a month ago.
■INSURANCE
Amlin purchasing Fortis
Amlin PLC, the biggest insurer in the Lloyds of London market, will buy Fortis Corporate Insurance NV for 350 million euros (US$500 million) in its largest acquisition to expand in Europe. The purchase of the Fortis unit, a provider of corporate property and casualty insurance in the Netherlands and Belgium, will lift Amlin’s earnings this year, the London-based company said in a statement yesterday. The insurer said it would raise about £80 million (US$133 million) selling 23.5 million shares to help fund the deal. The Netherlands bought Fortis Corporate Insurance in October, after the parent company ran out of short-term funding as customers withdrew deposits and credit markets froze.
■AUTOMOBILES
Golf run ending in S Africa
The days of the Citi Golf, an almost exact copy of the original Golf I first produced in Germany in the 1970s, are numbered with the Volkswagen subsidiary in South Africa planning to end production next year, Germany’s auto motor sport magazine reported. Quoting the head of Volkswagen South Africa, David Powels, the magazine said the factory needed capacity for the production of the new Jetta and Polo models. The Citi Golf has achieved something of a cult status in South Africa since production first began in 1984 and has continuously remained a good seller.
■MACHINERY
Komatsu to build hybrids
Japan’s top maker of construction machinery Komatsu Ltd said yesterday it plans to start assembling diesel-electric hybrid excavators in China this year. Komatsu — which last year began producing the machines as a test run in Japan — targets sales of 700 units for the current financial year from April, a company spokesman said. “Of these, we aim to sell 500 units in China, by producing them in our subsidiary in the country’s Shandong Province,” he said. A hybrid excavator uses an average of 25 percent less fuel than a conventional diesel-powered model, he said.
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