■MINING
Brazilian firms eye UK listing
Brazilian iron ore firm Ferrous Resources Ltd plans to list in London, raising up to US$450 million to develop its mine projects. “Our target is to be one of the world’s largest iron ore producing companies,” executive chairman Gordon Toll said in a statement yesterday. The listing on the main board of the London Stock Exchange will consist of a combination of new shares and sales of shares by existing shareholders, Ferrous said. The firm, which plans to raise US$350 toUS$450 million from new shares, expects to have a free float of around 25 percent, the firm said. Ferrous aims to produce 25 million tonnes of iron ore per year by the end of 2013 and 65 million tonnes by 2016. It has five assets in Minas Gerais, the largest iron-ore-producing region in Brazil, and one asset in Bahia state, with total resources of 4.5 billion tonnes.
■STEEL
Ansteel plans US expansion
China’s Anshan Iron and Steel Group (Ansteel, 鞍鋼) said yesterday it had signed an equity investment agreement with US mill Steel Development Company that includes building five new US plants. The first plant will be built in Amory, Mississippi, and mainly target the southeastern US and Latin American markets, Ansteel said in a statement on its Web site. It said the structure of the deal, which was signed on Friday, was needed to meet US government requirements that steel used in infrastructure projects funded by a massive US stimulus package come from local manufacturers. The Mississippi government would help subsidize the Amory plant, it said, without providing further details.
■INVESTMENT
Man Group to buy GLG
Man Group Plc, the biggest publicly traded hedge fund firm, agreed to buy GLG Partners Inc for US$1.6 billion to reduce its reliance on a single trading program and expand its range of funds. GLG’s public shareholders will receive US$4.50 in cash for each share, 55 percent more than the firm’s closing price on Friday, London-based Man Group said in a statement yesterday. Man Group has been criticized by analysts for its dependence on AHL, a trading program that accounts for half of assets, and has said it wants to diversify by adding strategies uncorrelated to AHL’s managed futures. The purchase was “central to Man’s stated strategy of acquiring high-quality discretionary investment management capability to broaden our range of diversified, liquid strategies for the benefit of our investors,” Man chairman Jon Aisbitt said in the statement.
■ECONOMY
Singapore’s exports soar
Singapore said yesterday that exports rose 29.4 percent last month from the previous year on strong demand from major trading partners such as the US, China and Hong Kong. The rise in non-oil domestic exports beat expectations and was faster than the 25.4 percent growth in March, trade promotion body International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said. Exports of electronics and non-electronics goods powered the growth, it said. Although shipments to all 10 top export markets climbed, “the largest contributors to the increase were the US, China and Hong Kong,” IE Singapore said. Exports to the US soared 46 percent, up from a 12 percent rise in March, while shipments to China rose 30 percent and to Hong Kong 41 percent. Total trade expanded by 31 percent to nearly S$77 billion (US$55 billion).
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)