■ Indexes
Google to join S&P 500
Google Inc will be added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index after a fourfold surge in its shares that valued the world's most-used Internet search engine at more than US$100 billion. "Based on the calendar of publicly announced deals, this was the best time to make the addition," said David Guarino, a S&P spokesman in New York. "The stock price wasn't a factor in our decision." Google is the biggest company ever added to the S&P 500, according to Nicholas Gulden, an analyst at Citigroup Inc in New York. The stock will become the highest-priced among the index's members, surpassing Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
■ Semiconductors
Siemens offloads Infineon
Siemens AG, Europe's largest engineering company, is selling its entire 18 percent stake in Infineon Technologies AG, worth about 1.2 billion euros (US$1.4 billion), in a placement managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Munich-based Siemens is selling 136.3 million shares in Germany's largest maker of semiconductors, Goldman said in a statement on Thursday. The sale comes 14 months after Klaus Kleinfeld took over as Siemens' chief executive officer and completes the company's retreat from the chipmaker it spun off in an initial public offering six years ago. Kleinfeld has announced almost 7,000 job cuts, mainly at the telecommunications and computer-services divisions, and has sold the unprofitable mobile-phone unit to Taiwan's BenQ Corp (明基).
■ Banking
Brokerage to buy Tokyo Star
Japan's third-largest brokerage Nikko Cordial plans to buy a controlling stake in a Tokyo bank revived by US private equity fund Lone Star for more than US$1.2 billion, a report said yesterday. Nikko Cordial will soon launch a tender offer to buy up to 50 percent of shares in Tokyo Star Bank, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, adding the broker aimed to get at least one-third of the shares to become the top shareholder. Lone Star, which holds nearly 70 percent of outstanding shares in Tokyo Star, plans to sell its control over the bank, the economic daily said without naming sources. The acquisition price is likely to exceed ?140 billion (US$1.2 billion), the paper said. The deal between Nikko Cordial and Lone Star would mark the first instance in Japan of a brokerage purchasing a bank, the Nihon Keizai said.
■ Automobiles
GM to sell mortgage arm
General Motors Corp said on Thursday that its finance arm is raising nearly US$9 billion in cash by selling a majority interest in its commercial mortgage division in a move that spruces up the books of the auto loan and insurance business the struggling automaker is trying to sell. General Motors Acceptance Corp is getting US$1.5 billion in cash from an investment group for a 78 percent stake in the commercial mortgage business. In addition, that business, known as GMAC Commercial Holding Corp, repaid US$7.3 billion in intercompany loans. That boosts the total proceeds to GMAC to almost US$9 billion. The announcement comes a day after GM and its major supplier, Delphi Corp, said they plan to offer buyouts to more than 125,000 hourly workers under an agreement with the United Auto Workers. Workers are expected to start leaving GM by June 1.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
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