■CABLE
Liberty Global buys firm
International cable operator Liberty Global agreed to buy Unitymedia GmbH, the second-largest German cable network company, for an equity purchase price of US$3 billion to expand its European footprint. Along with Unitymedia’s reported net debt at Sept 30 of about US$2.2 billion, the total consideration is about US$5.2 billion excluding transaction costs, the company said in a statement. Unitymedia is owned by a group of shareholders led by BC Partners and Apollo, while Liberty Global is controlled by US cable pioneer John Malone. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of next year.
■JAPAN
FamilyMart buys rival
Japanese convenience store chain operator FamilyMart Co said yesterday it would acquire smaller rival am/pm Japan Co for ¥12 billion (US$130 million) to boost its market share amid sluggish consumer spending. FamilyMart, Japan’s third-largest convenience store chain, will purchase all shares in am/pm from parent company Rex Holdings Co, the company said. FamilyMart plans to absorb am/pm early next year. The merged entity will have 8,700 stores in Japan, compared with 9,700 stores operated by Lawson Inc and 12,500 by 7-Eleven.
■AVIATION
Japan Air posts losses
Struggling carrier Japan Airlines said yesterday it racked up ¥131.2 billion in losses during the first half through September and applied for government help to restructure. The company — Asia’s biggest carrier by revenues — made a ¥36.6 billion profit in the same period a year earlier. Details of its restructuring plan are still being worked but it was working with the government through a “turnaround procedure” that will enlist the assistance of a private operator.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Disney posts earnings jump
The Walt Disney Co posted a surprise 18 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday and announced an executive job switch that might point to an eventual successor to chief executive Robert Iger. Iger, 58, said he was behind the decision to turn chief financial officer Tom Staggs into the parks and resorts chairman, while making parks chairman Jay Rasulo the new CFO. Net income rose to US$895 million, or US$0.47 per share, as revenue at its cable, broadcast and movie studio units rose, more than offsetting declines at its parks and consumer products units.
■GERMANY
Economic activity grows
Germany is well into recovery, with the economy growing for the second quarter and exports, investment and construction leaving recession behind, official data showed yesterday. The German Desatis statistics office said economic activity expanded by a provisional 0.7 percent in the third quarter from the previous three-month period. Germany’s performance was more than twice the figure achieved in key neighbor France which showed growth of 0.3 percent in the quarter.
■BEVERAGES
Suntory buys Orangina
Japanese beverage giant Suntory Holdings said yesterday that it had completed a deal to buy Orangina Schweppes, the European maker of the orange-flavored soft drink, for an undisclosed sum. The Japanese firm had announced a binding offer in September to buy Orangina Schweppes from investment funds Blackstone Group and Lion Capital.
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
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing