■STEEL
ArcelorMittal may cut jobs
ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, could cut 10,000 jobs worldwide next year to boost productivity and reduce general expenses by around US$500 million, French newspaper Les Echos said yesterday. The company, which employs 285,300 people, wants to regain lost market share and has a goal for general expenses to account for less than 3.5 percent of revenue, the paper said, citing trade union representatives who attended a European workers committee meeting last week.
■FINANCE
Lloyds cash call does well
Lloyds Banking Group said yesterday the take-up for its record £13.5 billion (US$21.9 billion) rights issue totaled more than 95 percent, drawing a line under a turbulent few months for Britain’s largest retail lender. Lloyd’s cash call — the world’s largest to date — is a key plank of its bumper capital raising effort launched last month to enable the bailed-out bank to avoid a state-backed insurance scheme for bad debts. A high take-up is the strongest indication yet of shareholder support for its turnaround efforts. After the 95 percent take-up, just over £600 million in shares will be left to be placed by its underwriters, Bank of America Merill Lynch, UBS and Citigroup — considerably better than Lloyds’ last rights offer in June, which left 13.1 percent to be placed by its bankers.
■FOOD
Cadbury rejects Kraft offer
British confectionary group Cadbury yesterday rejected a takeover bid from US giant Kraft Foods, describing the offer as insufficient. Cadbury management said it was offering shareholders maximum value by keeping the company independent, notably as it was raising its long-term financial targets. “Kraft is trying to buy Cadbury on the cheap to provide much needed growth to their unattractive low-growth conglomerate business model,” Cadbury chairman Roger Carr said in a circular to shareholders. “Don’t let Kraft steal your company with its derisory offer.” Cadbury said it now foresaw organic growth of 5 percent to 7 percent a year, a profit margin of 16 percent to 18 percent by 2013 and double-digit growth in dividends per share starting next year. Kraft, which has been repeatedly snubbed by Cadbury management, had appealed directly to Cadbury shareholders with details of its offer.
■INTERNET
AOL may sell ICQ
AOL is in talks to sell ICQ, an instant-messaging service, to Digital Sky Technologies of Russia, a person briefed on the matter said on Sunday. The discussions, which are still in the early stages and may not result in a deal. The talks come in the wake of AOL’s new independence after spinning off from Time Warner last week. AOL’s chief executive, Tim Armstrong, said recently that the company would seek to sell noncore assets as it reshaped itself into an online media company. AOL may fetch at least US$200 million for ICQ, an early instant-messaging client that initially competed against AOL’s own offering. Other AOL holdings, like the Bebo social network, may also be put up for sale. While not big presences within the US, both ICQ and Bebo have big user bases abroad. Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm, paid US$200 million for a 3.5 percent stake in Facebook this summer. AOL acquired ICQ’s parent, Mirabilis, from its four founders in 1998 for US$287 million in upfront cash and US$120 million in payments tied to performance milestones.
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