■AUTOMOBILES
BMW invests in S Africa
German automotive giant BMW announced yesterday it was investing 2.2 billion rand (US$220 million) to build its new 3 Series in South Africa, after obtaining assurances from the South African government on continued manufacturing incentives. Announcing the investment in Johannesburg, BMW South Africa’s managing director Bodo Donauer said: “It will secure BMW car production in South Africa for the foreseeable future.” From 60,000 vehicles a year, BMW South Africa’s production will jump to 87,000 vehicles. From its plant outside Pretoria BMW SA exports to the US, Japan, Australia and other leading car markets as well as sub-Saharan Africa.
■RETAIL
Gazprom to sell groceries
Russian energy giant Gazprom is set to open a chain of supermarkets, which would become the country’s fifth-biggest food retailer, the Kommersant daily reported yesterday. The chain would be formed on the basis of 400 stores and cafeterias which presently serve only Gazprom employees, the newspaper said, citing a company which is organizing the rebranding campaign. “The plan was to further expand the chain by opening new sites,” Irina Vedenetskaya, executive director of the Coruna branding agency, told Kommersant in an article headlined “Gaz-food.” Vedenetskaya said her agency had worked out a rebranding campaign where the company stores would become a chain called “Naraskhvat,” a Russian expression which can be translated as “to sell like hot cakes.”
■INSURANCE
Aviva to complete IPO
Aviva PLC, the UK’s second-biggest insurer by market value, expects to complete an initial public offering (IPO) of its Dutch insurance unit next month. More information about the proposed transaction is expected to be published in a prospectus this month, the London-based insurer said in a statement yesterday. On that basis, the IPO would be completed next month, Aviva said. Aviva is selling part of its 92 percent holding in Delta Lloyd Group, which traces its roots back to 1807, to raise cash. The company plans to sell a minority of its stake, it said today. Aviva said on Thursday it could sell 30 percent of the business.
■EQUITIES
Strategists retain ‘hold’
Credit Suisse Group AG strategists reiterated a recommendation to hold more global equities than are reflected in benchmarks and raised their earnings-per-share estimate for next year for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to US$76 from US$71. The S&P 500 could end this year at 1,100 because a growing US economy and expanding earnings will spur investors to allocate more money to equities, the strategists wrote in a report yesterday.
■BANKING
Standard adds executives
Standard Chartered PLC, the London-based bank that makes most of its money in emerging markets, added executives in equity sales and research to its expanding Asian operations. Tim Andrew and David Murray, formerly of Deutsche Bank, will join Standard Chartered as global head of cash equities and global head of equities research respectively, an internal memo said on Friday. The appointments are the latest step in the lender’s plans to bolster its Asian operations. The bank completed the acquisition of Cazenove Asia Ltd from JPMorgan Cazenove Ltd in January to help it build an equity capital markets and institutional brokerage business.
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