■INSURANCE
Taiwan AIG deal approved
Bank of East Asia Ltd (東亞銀行) said it has received regulatory approval to buy American International Group Inc’s wealth management services in Taiwan. The Hong Kong-listed bank received approval from the Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the acquisition, the company said in a statement. The bank said it expected the transaction to be completed by the end of this month.
■SECURITIES
President plans joint venture
President Securities Corp (統一證券) plans to set up a brokerage joint venture with Xiamen C&D Inc (廈門建發) of China, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing an unnamed official with the Fujian provincial government. President Securities opened a representative office in Xiamen in September last year. The Taiwanese brokerage said it was still discussing the plan with Xiamen C&D, the newspaper said. The joint venture will be made public only after the two sides sign memorandums of understanding on financial supervisory, the paper said.
■SECURITIES
China bans trader
China’s securities regulator permanently banned Zhang Ye (張野), a former fund manager at Rongtong Fund Management Co (融通基金), from entering the nation’s capital market after finding him guilty of illegal trading. When a fund manager, Zhang misused trading and research information from Rongtong to benefit himself and other people between 2007 and this February, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement on its Web site on Friday. Zhang will be fined 4 million yuan (US$585,100) and the 2.3 million yuan he gained from illegal trading will be confiscated, the statement said.
■TELECOMS
Nokia to buy Nortel business
Canadian telecommunications company Nortel that has been in bankruptcy protection since January announced on Friday that it will sell most of its wireless business to Nokia Siemens Networks for US$650 million. In addition, Nortel announced that it is advancing in its discussions with other parties to sell its other businesses. Nortel will apply to delist its common shares from trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the company said in a statement.
■AUTOMOTIVE
Objections may stall GM
A group of General Motors Corp (GM) bondholders and some of the automaker’s labor unions filed objections on Friday to GM’s plan to sell its assets to a new company that can emerge from bankruptcy protection. Their opposition, along with additional objections filed by consumer groups, a handful of states and cities, and individual retirees, shareholders and bondholders, threatens to put the brakes on what has so far been a speedy trip through the bankruptcy process.
■ENERGY
Total sacks 647 strikers
Strikes spread to energy facilities across Britain Friday after almost 650 workers were sacked at an oil refinery after they called a wildcat strike, unions said. French oil giant Total, the owner of the Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire, eastern England, said it had sent termination letters to 647 workers, after previous reports said that 900 would be affected. The dispute deepened when talks to try to resolve it failed to take place.
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
TECHNOLOGICAL RIVALRY: The artificial intelligence chip competition among multiple players would likely intensify over the next two years, a Quanta official said Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which makes servers and laptops on a contract basis, yesterday said its shipments of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s GB300 chips have increased steadily since last month, should surpass those of the GB200 models this quarter. The production of GB300 servers has gone much more smoothly than that of the GB200, with shipments projected to increase sharply next month, Quanta executive vice president Mike Yang (楊麒令) said on the sidelines of a technology forum in Taipei. While orders for GB200 servers gradually decrease, the production transition between the two server models has been
ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing supplier, yesterday announced a strategic collaboration with Analog Devices Inc (ADI), coupled with the signing of a binding memorandum of understanding. Under the agreement, ASE intends to purchase 100 percent shares of Analog Devices Sdn Bhd and acquire its manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, a press release showed. The ADI Penang facility is located in the prime industrial hub of Bayan Lepas, with an area of over 680,000 square feet, it said. In addition, the two sides intend to enter into a long-term supply agreement for ASE to
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