■BANKING
SocGen sets profit target
French bank Societe Generale said yesterday it aimed to double net profits by 2012 to 6 billion euros (US$7.3 billion) from a target of 3 billion euros this year. Revenues are also expected to grow revenues 4 percent annually by then, the bank said, outlining a new strategy focusing on its French networks, international retail banking and corporate and investment banking. The bank addded that losses on hard-to-sell toxic assets in its portfolio would not exceed 700 million to 1 billion euros this year, in line with previous expectations. Such assets are to be reduced by 60 percent by 2015, it said.
■FOOD
Hershey to upgrade plants
Chocolate maker Hershey Co said it would spend US$250 million to US$300 million modernizing some facilities in its home town in Pennsylvania to cut annual costs by US$80 million a year. Hershey said on Monday that its board had approved the plan. Union members paved the way 10 days earlier by approving a contract that will lead to hundreds of layoffs and move production out of the century-old factory built by company founder Milton Hershey. The company will spend US$200 million to US$225 million to modernize and expand the newer of its two West Hershey factories. It will also spend US$50 million to US$75 million upgrading distribution and administrative facilities in Hershey. The company expects the project to save it US$80 million a year by 2014.
■RETAIL
Tesco Q1 sales up 8.2%
Tesco, the world’s No. 3 retailer, said the global economic recovery was building and growth in its main UK market would pick up after quarterly sales were hit by lower food price inflation and higher fuel costs. The supermarket group, which runs more than 4,800 stores in 14 countries, said yesterday sales rose 8.2 percent in the 13 weeks to May 30, the first quarter of its fiscal year, as growth overseas offset a flat underlying performance in Britain. Finance director Laurie McIlwee urged the government to keep VAT sales tax steady for now, even as it looks to rein in a record deficit in an emergency June 22 budget.
■CHINA
Bad debts growing
Beijing yesterday said domestic banks were under pressure from growing bad debts after rampant lending to government investment units, the property sector and other industries last year. The China Banking Regulatory Commission issued the warning in its annual report for last year, when banks lent 9.6 trillion yuan (US1.4 trillion), fanning inflationary pressures and raising fears of economic overheating. Outstanding non-performing loans reached 426.5 billion yuan at the end of last year, down from 486.5 billion yuan a year earlier, the report showed. But loans classified as losses rose to 55.8 billion yuan from 49.5 billion yuan a year earlier.
■SOUTH KOREA
Economy recovering: OECD
The economy is recovering fast from the global downturn but faces problems such as a rapidly aging population, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said yesterday. The OECD said in a six-monthly report that Asia’s fourth-largest economy is projected to grow 5.75 percent this year and 4.75 percent next year. But over the medium term, sustaining growth and a rise in living standards depends on raising labor productivity and increasing participation in the work force to offset a graying population, it said.
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
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
‘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)