■AUTOMOBILES
Peugeot posts 2.2% decline
PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s second-biggest carmaker, posted a 2.2 percent decline in full-year vehicle sales and said Europe would lag behind a market recovery in the rest of the world this year. Peugeot Citroen sold 3.19 million cars and light trucks last year, compared with 3.26 million a year earlier, the Paris-based company said in a statement yesterday. The introduction of sales incentives last year helped reduce the effects of the recession, which caused a 14 percent plunge in Peugeot’s first-half European sales. The region’s industry-wide car deliveries fell 2.8 percent in the first 11 months, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said on Dec. 15.
■RETAIL
Brighthouse sales strong
British rent-to-own retailer Brighthouse posted strong sales for the run-up to Christmas and said yesterday it was well positioned for further growth. The 190-store firm, which sells electrical appliances, household furniture and related products to customers who make weekly payments, said sales increased 21 percent to £50.5 million (US$80.6 million) in the 13 weeks to Dec. 24. Sales at stores open over a year rose 9 percent. The group, owned by investment firm Vision Capital, said it was on track to open a total of 20 stores in the year to end of March. “Current overall performance is in line with management expectations. Looking forward to 2010, the company is well placed for further growth,” chief executive Leo McKee said.
■INVESTMENT
FCP enters biofuel tie-up
A partnership set up by investment boutique Future Capital Partners (FCP) aims to raise £236 million in project finance for a biofuel plant it will construct in Grimsby, northern Britain. Future Capital chief executive Tim Levy said the bulk of the project finance would be raised through a combination of debt and equity though wealthy private investors will be tapped for £40 million. Future Capital said in a statement it expects to provide investors, who must commit at least £50,000, annual returns in excess of 30 percent over a five to seven year period. The venture has also secured purchasing contracts worth at least £1.5 billion, with an unnamed global banking group agreeing to purchase all the ethanol produced over 10 years for 1 billion based on current fuel prices.
■INVESTMENT
Reliance raises US$750mn
India’s Reliance Industries said yesterday it raised US$756 million in another share issue, its third in four months as it prepares to make overseas acquisitions. Reliance, the country’s largest private sector firm, said in a statement it had sold 33 million shares at an average price of 1,050 rupees (US$23) each, raising nearly 35 billion rupees. The company has made a bid for the bankrupt Netherlands-based chemical firm LyondellBasell. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Reliance had raised its valuation of Lyondell to about US$13.5 billion from the US$12 billion initially put forward in November. “If the Lyondell deal does not come through, there could be others in the pipeline,” said Hitesh Agrawal, head of research with Mumbai-based brokerage Angel Broking. A deal between Reliance and Lyondell, the world’s third-largest chemicals maker, would create a global energy and chemicals giant, with annual revenues estimated at near US$80 billion.
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