■ RESTAURANTS
Mitsubishi buys KFC Japan
Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp said yesterday that it successfully completed a friendly takeover of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Japan Ltd, which owns more than 1,500 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants around the country. Mitsubishi, which already owned 31 percent of KFC Japan's shares, will pay &ye n1,947 (US$16.91) each for a further 7.62 million shares, the bulk of which are held by US-based KFC Corporate Holdings Ltd, it said in a statement. The Tokyo-based trading company will hold nearly 65 percent of KFC Japan's voting shares as a result of the &ye n14.83 billion transaction.
■ RETAIL
CompUSA stores to close
Consumer electronics retailer CompUSA said it will close its store operations after the holidays following sale of the company to Gordon Brothers Group LLC, a restructuring firm. Financial terms were not disclosed. Dallas-based CompUSA operates 103 stores, which plan to run store-closing sales during the holidays. Privately held CompUSA, controlled by Mexican financier Carlos Slim Helu's Grupo Carso SA, said on Friday that talks were under way to sell certain stores in key markets. Stores that cannot be sold will be closed.
■ AVIATION
Qaddafi signs contracts
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi will sign several contracts during a visit to France next week, including for Airbus planes and a nuclear reactor, his son said in an interview published on Friday. Seif el-Islam Qaddafi told the Web site of the Figaro daily the Airbus deal would be "worth more than 3 billion euros" (US$4.38 billion). Muammar Qaddafi is due to pitch a Bedouin tent in gardens next to the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on Monday at the start of a five-day visit, his first to France since November 1973. His son also said the purchase of Rafale fighter jets would be discussed, in the latest sign of improving Franco-Libyan relations.
■ TELECOMS
HK firm plans wireless trial
PCCW Ltd, Hong Kong's largest telephone company, said it will launch a trial wireless service based on WiMax technology in the UK next year. The network will have the capacity for "a few thousand" users, group managing director Alex Arena told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday. The firm plans to start network construction in the first quarter, before making a decision midyear on extending the service, he said. UK Broadband, PCCW's UK unit, started a wireless broadband service in the country in 2004 using an older technology. PCCW is in talks with companies in Taiwan and other markets to provide pay-TV services, Arena said.
■ CHINA
Bank reserve rule adjusted
China's central bank announced yesterday that it would raise the reserve ratio requirement for banks by a full percentage point to 14.5 percent on Dec. 25. The People's Bank of China made the move "to strengthen the management of liquidity in the banking system and curb the excessive growth of credit," it said in a statement. The move, the 10th such increase in the requirement this year, was expected following exceptionally strong recent economic growth and inflation data. The hike follows a half percentage point increase on Nov. 10. The requirement for banks is the amount of money they must hold in reserve, affecting the amount of money flowing through the economy.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
COLLABORATION: The operations center shows the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the field of semiconductors, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand. Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said. The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs. The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company
RSS