■ BANKING
Commerzbank back in black
The second-biggest German bank, Commerzbank, said yesterday that it swung back into profit in the second quarter of the year and predicted it would end the year with a profit as well. The bank made a net profit of 352 million euros (US$460 million) compared with a loss of 761 million euros in the same period a year earlier, owing in part to lower provisions against losses on risky loans, a statement said. For the first half of the year, Commerzbank posted a net profit of nearly 1.1 billion euros as it decreased loan loss provisions in the second quarter to 639 million euros from 993 million euros in the same period a year earlier.
■TELECOMS
NTT posts higher profits
Japan’s top telecoms operator, NTT, said yesterday net profit rose 11.7 percent in the April to June quarter from the previous year and maintained its annual forecasts. The telecommunications firm booked a group net profit of ¥155.94 billion (US$1.8 billion) in the fiscal first quarter, up from ¥139.56 billion in the same period a year earlier. Its mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc, last week reported a slump in profit for the first quarter, which declined 3.5 percent year-on-year to ¥142.15 billion amid tough market competition from iPhone-touting rival Softbank.
■ TELECOMS
Deutsche Telekom profit falls
German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG said yesterday that its second-quarter profit fell 8.8 percent and revenues slipped as the company deconsolidated its British mobile phone unit T-Mobile UK. Deutsche Telekom, based in Bonn, said it had net profit of 475 million euros (US$626 million) for the April to June period — down from 521 million euros a year earlier. It said the T-Mobile UK move weighed down net earnings by 200 million euros.
■INSURERS
Swiss Re out of the red
Swiss Re, one of the world’s biggest reinsurers, reported yesterday an US$812 million net profit in the second quarter despite the cost of disaster damage from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The result marked a shift out of a US$342 million net loss during the same period last year and exceeded analysts’ expectations. The reinsurer estimated that it would foot property damage claims of about US$200 million before tax after the giant oil spill from BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the US coast.
■CONSUMER PRODUCTS
Unilever profit hits 1bn euros
Unilever, a global giant in the food and cosmetics sectors, reported a 40 percent leap in quarterly net profit yesterday. The outcome for the second quarter, in line with analysts’ expectations, was driven by strong sales. The net figure was 1.06 billion euros (US$1.39 billion) from 758 million euros in the same period of last year. This took the results for the whole of the first half of the year to 2.03 billion euros, a rise of 37 percent year-on-year.
■ INDONESIA
GDP grows 6.2 percent
The government said yesterday that GDP grew 6.2 percent in the second quarter of the year compared with a year earlier as household consumption, exports and investment picked up. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy grew 2.8 percent in the April to June period, faster than the 1.9 percent expansion seen in the first quarter, the Central Statistics Agency said. “The economic growth was helped by improving domestic and external factors,” agency deputy chairman Slamet Sutomo said.
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)