■ Economy
Moody's upbeat on Japan
Moody's Investors Service said yesterday that its rating outlook for Japanese com-panies is generally positive on expectations that their credit quality will continue to improve for the time being. "Signs of improving credit quality ... support a favorable rating outlook for the Japanese corporate sector," the credit rating agency said in a report. "The holes that existed in corporate balance sheets have largely been filled through restructurings, debt forgiveness and a highly supportive monetary policy," the agency said, adding that it expects credit quality and credit ratings to con-tinue to improve. Average earnings coverage of in-terest charges has increased four-fold to almost nine times from two times in 1995, according to a Moody's survey of the largest 1,000 companies listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
■ Internet
S Korean portal buys Lycos
South Korea's top Internet portal, Daum Communica-tions Corp, said yesterday it has acquired the US portal business of Spain's Terra Lycos. Daum said it has acquired all of Lycos' opera-tions for 111.2 billion won (US$95.3 million). The deal will be financed by Daum's cash reserves and bonds, it said. Daum said it aims to become a global leader in the sector by combining Lycos' brand and Daum's business know-how. Daum expects the NASDAQ-listed Internet portal to turn profitable by next year on the back of strong growth in the US advertising market. Lycos has been buffeted by heavy losses since 1999. Daum president Lee Jae-Woong, however, said Lycos, the seventh-most visited Web site in the US, would help his firm secure a foothold in the rapidly growing US Internet market.
■ Financing
GE unit buys stake
GE Consumer Finance, a unit of US giant General Electric, yesterday agreed to purchase a 38 percent stake in Hyundai Capital, the financial services affiliate of South Korea's largest automaker, Hyundai Motor Group. The accord was part of a strategic alliance between the two companies under which GE Consumer will invest one trillion won (US$857 mil-lion), including 480 won for the 38 percent stake, in Hyundai Capital by 2006, Hyundai Capital said in a statement. GE Consumer was also given an option to buy another 5 percent stake in Hyundai Capital, the statement said. The alliance will help GE Consumer enter South Korea's fast-growing auto loan and consumer financing market and aid Hyundai Capital raise its global profile, Hyundai officials said.
■ Crime
Trial opens in Malaysia
The trial of a former tycoon charged with fraud in Malaysia's biggest-ever financial scandal began yesterday. Eric Chia, the 72-year-old ex-managing director of Perwaja Steel, has pleaded innocent to a charge of criminal breach of trust in connection with the firm's near-collapse in the 1990s. Government lawyers claim Chia -- who was arrested in February but remains free on bail -- illegally approved a 76.4 million ringgit (US$20 million) payment by Per-waja to a bogus Hong Kong company. Chia faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and an unspecified fine. Chia left Perwaja in 1995, and authorities launched a probe in 1996 after an auditor found the company to close to bankruptcy.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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