Thu, Oct 09, 2003 page12

• World Business Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  ■ Media
  Vivendi, GE create giant

  Struggling French-American conglomerate Vivendi Universal has signed a deal with General Electric to sell 80 percent of its media and entertainment unit to the American corporation, both companies announced yesterday. General Electric is to own 80 percent and Vivendi 20 percent of the new entity, which will be formed from a merger of Vivendi Universal Entertain-ment and GE's media subsidiary, NBC, and is to be called NBC Universal. Instantly one of the world's largest media enterprises, with some US$13 billion in turnover, NBC Universal will comprise the NBC television network, cable networks CNBC, MSNBC and USA Network, Universal Pictures film studios and Universal Television programme distributor. In the deal, VUE shareholders will receive US$3.8 billion in cash, of which Vivendi Universal, as 86 percent owner, is to receive US$3.3 billion.

  ■ Real estate

  Lone Star wins property bid

  Lone Star Funds, a Texas-based investor, agreed to buy about ¥38 billion (US$342 million) of property from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, a Japanese bank that is bidding to cut its bad loans by half, bankers familiar with the plan said. Minami-Aoyama Building Ltd, a Tokyo-based developer financed by Sumitomo Mitsui, sold about 20 properties, mostly offices and apartments, the bankers said. Lone Star outbid Goldman Sachs Group Inc for the assets, they said. The sale is also part of Sumitomo Mitsui's bid to halve its bad loans by March 2005. Japan's second-biggest bank by assets had US$47 billion of bad debts as of March, the most as a percentage of total loans among the nation's four biggest lenders.

  ■ Telemarketing

  `No-call' list clears courts

  A federal appeals court cleared the way Tuesday for the Federal Trade Commission to finally start running its national do-not-call list, pending a court fight over whether the registry violates the industry's free-speech rights. The 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the FTC could run the registry while a challenge from telemarketers winds its way through the courts. Oral arguments were scheduled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Nov. 10. Telemarketers will not be allowed to call people who have registered on the do-not-call list when the program is implemented. US District Judge Edward Nottingham of Denver had barred the FTC from putting the registry into effect because the list unfairly blocks calls from businesses but not charities. In staying his ruling, the appeals court suggested that conclusion was too broad.

  ■ Economic policy

  S&P raises debt ratings

  Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia had their debt ratings raised to their highest levels since the 1997 Asian financial crisis by Standard & Poor's, which praised leaders in the three countries for improving government finances. Indonesia's long-term foreign currency rating was raised one level to B, five levels below investment grade and the same as Pakistan. Thailand's rating was raised to BBB, two levels above junk. Malaysia was raised one level to A-, the fourth-lowest investment grade and on a par with South Korea. Surging exports and consumer spending are helping revive economic growth and tax revenues across Southeast Asia, six years after the devaluation of the Thai baht triggered recessions across the region. Standard & Poor's said the three countries' political leaderships are stable.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Taobao fined NT$1.2m for unauthorized advertising

  • 2

    Taobao fined over ads, risks losing license: ministry

  • 3

    Taiwan, Tuvalu sign agreements on labor cooperation

  • 4

    Kaitlyn Chen is drafted by WNBA

  • 5

    Nazi armband protest in recall petition case draws criticism