■TELECOMS
Vodafone profits soar
British mobile phone giant Vodafone yesterday announced that group net profits almost trebled to £8.645 billion (US$12.5 billion) in the 12 months to March 31. The sharp jump in earnings, which compared with profit after tax of £3.078 billion in 2008 and last year, came as Vodafone cut costs and increased sales of its broadband Internet services, chief executive Vittorio Colao said in comments accompanying the earnings data. “In particular, mobile data and fixed broadband services continue to grow while we increased the contribution being made by our operations in emerging economies, primarily by gaining market share,” he said.
■EQUITIES
Fidelity NIS bid dropped
A group of private equity firms led by the Blackstone Group has dropped plans for a US$15 billion bid for Fidelity National Information Services (NIS), people briefed on the matter said on Monday. The group, which also included THL Partners and TPG Capital, declined to meet a demand from Fidelity National’s board for a “substantial increase” over the US$32 a share that was proposed, these people said. Representatives for the private equity firms and Fidelity National, a financial information firm, declined to comment or could not be reached for comment. In a statement earlier on Monday, Fidelity National said it was considering both a leveraged buyout and a leveraged recapitalization, in which the company would borrow money to pay a special dividend to shareholders. One other concern was that Fidelity National’s largest shareholder, Warburg Pincus, had expressed dissatisfaction over the Blackstone-led group’s proposed price, these people said.
■INVESTMENT
Berkshire cuts holdings
Billionaire Warren Buffett’s firm says it cut its holdings in a dozen different companies in the first quarter, including Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble, as it finished raising cash for its US$26.7 billion acquisition of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. Berkshire Hathaway detailed the changes to its roughly US$51 billion US stock portfolio in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The filing offers a snapshot of the Omaha-based company’s holdings as of March 31. During the first three months of the year Berkshire also reduced its stakes in ConocoPhillips, Costco Wholesale, Gannett and Johnson & Johnson.
■PHARMACEUTICS
Novartis slapped with fine
A jury has decided that the drug company Novartis AG engaged in a pattern of discrimination against women, paying them less than men and treating pregnant women unfavorably. The verdict was returned on Monday in Manhattan federal court. The jury awarded several million dollars total in compensatory damages to a dozen women who had worked at the company.
■BANKRUPTCIES
Icahn reopens Trump battle
Carl Icahn and Dallas-based Beal Bank appealed a bankruptcy court ruling they lost to Donald and Ivanka Trump and company bondholders over the three Trump Entertainment casinos in Atlantic City. The billionaire investor asked a judge to put off granting control of the three Trump Entertainment Resorts casinos to the Trumps and the bondholders, saying the bankruptcy court made several mistakes. The Trumps and the bondholders, led by New York-based Avenue Capital Group, offered US$225 million for the company.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
RSS