■BANKING
Deutsche net income triples
Deutsche Bank said yesterday that net income more than tripled in the third quarter, the latest in a string of positive results from banks more than a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Germany’s biggest bank said according to preliminary estimates, net profit was 1.4 billion euros (US$2.1 billion), up from 440 million euros in the same period a year ago. Pretax profit was 1.3 billion euros, up from just 93 million euros in the year-earlier period, and that its bottom line was boosted by a number of tax credits. Full results are scheduled next Thursday. The Frankfurt-based lender said that all its business segments posted “positive results,” and that its tier one ratio, a closely watched measure of its financial soundness, improved to 11.7 percent from 10.3 percent.
■AUTOMOBILES
BAIC ‘respects’ IP rights
Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC, 北京汽車工業) sought yesterday to distance itself from an employee indicted in the US for industrial espionage, saying it respected intellectual property rights. Beijing Auto’s statement followed the arrest last week in the US of Yu Xiangdong (郁向東), also known as Mike Yu, on charges of stealing trade secrets from Ford Motor Co and trying to sell them in China. “BAIC has always respected and protected intellectual property rights. In the process of developing its own-brand cars, the company has always stressed the cultivation of innovation abilities,” the statement said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Peugeot Citroen income falls
French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen said yesterday that revenue fell 7.7 percent in the third quarter as car buyers outside its home European market continued to hold off on spending. The Paris-based company reported revenue of 11.8 billion euros for the July-to-September quarter, down from 12.8 billion euros a year earlier. PSA Peugeot Citroen lost 962 million euros in the first half. It expects to make an operating loss this year of between 1 billion euros and 2 billion euros based on hopes that the European automotive market will decline by about 12 percent this year.
■PUBLISHING
HP, Amazon team up
Some of the technology industry’s best-known companies are betting there’s pent-up demand for on-demand books. Hewlett-Packard is teaming up with Amazon.com to challenge Google in the quirky new market of recreating digital books as paperbacks. HP and Amazon announced their alliance yesterday, a few weeks after Google formed a similar partnership with a company called On Demand Books. The HP program offers to publish paperback versions of about 500,000 digital books scanned from the University of Michigan’s library.
■FOOD
Cadbury upgrades outlook
British chocolate and gum maker Cadbury PLC yesterday upgraded its full-year outlook as it reported a 7 percent rise in third-quarter revenue — proof, it said, that it does not need to be taken over by a conglomerate like Kraft to deliver results. Cadbury, which has rejected a takeover approach from Kraft Foods Inc, said it expected full-year revenue growth to be in the middle of a range between 4 percent and 6 percent. In its first-half report on July 9, the company had forecast revenue growth at the lower end of that range. Cadbury also forecast an improvement of 1.35 percentage points in its profit margin for the year, up from the half-year guidance of a between 0.80 and 1.00 percentage point increase.
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
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
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
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source