■PETROLEUM
BP stations want old name
Some BP gas station owners in the US want to drop the BP name and return to the Amoco brand to recover business hit by public anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. The executive director of the BP Amoco Marketers Association, John Kleine, said on Sunday his members were discussing the possibility of reverting to the Amoco brand. BP PLC’s bought Amoco in 1998 and many current BP distributors used to be Amoco distributors.
■TELECOMS
DoCoMo to buy PacketVideo
NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan’s largest mobile phone operator, said yesterday it will spend US$111.6 million to acquire the rest of PacketVideo Corp, a mobile technology company. The carrier said it will purchase 65 percent of California-based PacketVideo pending approval from its parent firm, NextWave Wireless Inc, and US regulators. DoCoMo, which acquired a 35 percent share last year for US$45.5 million, uses PacketVideo’s multimedia players in its handsets. In Japan, the major carriers traditionally maintain strict control of the software that goes into the mobile phones used on their networks, although this is gradually changing with the popularity of high-end phones like Apple’s iPhone and others that run on Google’s Android operating system. PacketVideo’s multimedia software is also used in other handsets worldwide.
■REAL ESTATE
Hammerson’s NAV rises
Anglo-French real estate investor Hammerson booked a 7.8 percent rise in its half-year adjusted net asset value (NAV) yesterday although it remains cautious for the future as fears for a relapse in property values stalk the market. The retail property specialist, which owns or co-owns some of Europe’s most popular malls like the Birmingham Bullring and Italie 2 near Paris, posted adjusted NAV per share of £4.54 (US$7.17)in the six months to June 30 and a 5.2 percent mark-up in its £5.2 billion portfolio.
■REAL ESTATE
Trio launch advisory firm
Three of the world’s most accomplished real estate bankers — John Carrafiell, Sonny Kalsi and Fred Schmidt — have launched a new investment and advisory firm as the pace of restructuring in the property sector ramps up. The trio of ex-Morgan Stanley veterans has set up GreenOak Real Estate ahead of an expected surge in distressed loan disposals, asset firesales and mortgage-backed security workouts in its core target markets of Europe, Japan and the US. GreenOak has secured US$110 million of seed capital, comprising a US$10 million working capital loan and a US$100 million co-investment commitment from Amsterdam-listed investment company Tetragon Financial Group Ltd, the closed-ended investor said in a statement yesterday.
■BANKING
HSBC net profits double
HSBC said yesterday that net profits more than doubled to US$6.76 billion in the first half this year as the global banking giant slashed its bad debt provisions. The profit after tax figure for the six months to June 30 compared with net earnings of US$3.34 billion for the first half of last year, the British group announced in a results statement. “As we focus on building a high quality asset base for the future, it is encouraging that loan impairment charges now stand at their lowest levels since the start of the financial crisis,” HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan said in the earnings release.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft