■ Aviation
Don Muang to reopen
Thailand agreed yesterday to reopen Bangkok's Don Muang airport for interna-tional and domestic flights amid growing problems at the new Suvarnabhumi Airport. "We need to time to make repairs and improve-ments at Suvarnabhumi airport because of the many flaws," Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. "Today the Cabinet has agreed to reopen Don Muang as an international airport." The move, which still needs final approval, means that international flights would be divided between the two airports. A government-appointed committee will submit a detailed plan for reopening Don Muang to the Cabinet in two weeks, after which Don Muang could be reopened in 45 days, Transport Minister Thira Hao-Charoen said.
■ Computers
IBM selling Lenovo shares
US computer giant IBM Corp yesterday planned to sell a substantial part of its stake in China's Lenovo (聯想), the world's third-largest personal computer group, to raise up to HK$990 million (US$127 million). According to a term-sheet sent to institutional investors, the sale price of the 300 million shares on offer will be HK$3.20 to HK$3.30 each, a 4.07-6.98 percent discount to the stock's closing price of HK$3.44 on Monday. The deal accounts for 3.5 percent of Lenovo Group's total issued share capital. After the share sale, IBM's shareholding in Lenovo will be reduced to 11.5 percent from 15 percent. Lenovo also requested a suspension of trade in it shares yesterday pending an announcement of "price-sensitive information" relating to the placing of its shares by a substantial shareholder, a statement posted on the Hong Kong stock exchange showed.
■ Automobiles
Toyota reports profit jump
Toyota yesterday reported a 7.3 percent jump in quarterly profit on booming sales in North America and Europe that offset sluggish demand in Japan. Toyota Motor Corp recorded group net profit of ¥426.8 billion (US$3.6 billion) in the three months ended Dec. 31, up from ¥397.6 billion in the same period the previous year. Quarterly sales climbed 15.2 percent to ¥6.15 trillion from ¥5.33 trillion a year ago, as the remodeled RAV 4 sport utility vehicle and Camry mid-sized sedan sold briskly in North America and demand was strong for the Yaris compact in Europe, Toyota said in a release.
■ Automobiles
Layoffs at DaimlerChrysler
DaimlerChrysler plans to slash 10,000 factory jobs in the US as part of a sweeping cost-cutting plan for its struggling Chrysler Group, the Detroit News reported on Monday. Citing a plan expected to be unveiled next Wednesday, the News said the German-US auto group also plans to implement "unprecedented" collabora-tion between the mass-market Chrysler and luxury Mercedes groups.
■ Securities
State Street to buy Investors
State Street Corp said on Monday that it would buy Investors Financial Services Corp in a US$4.5 billion stock deal that highlights the accelerating pace of consoli-dation in the securities processing business. The deal has been approved by the boards of the two rivals, both based in Boston. State Street is offering 0.906 shares of its stock for each share of Investors Financial Services common stock, based on last Friday's closing share price. That places the value of the deal at just less than US$4.5 billion.
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that
DUBIOUS HONOR? A man in his 90s, who tested positive yesterday and is part of the Taoyuan hospital cluster, is the oldest person in Taiwan to have contracted COVID-19 Taiwan yesterday recorded six new imported cases of COVID-19 and two new domestic cases, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said, adding that the local infections are linked to the cluster at Taoyuan General Hospital, which now totals 12 cases. One of the domestic cases is a man in his 90s, who was treated earlier this month at Taoyuan General Hospital and tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday last week, four days before he was discharged, the center said in a statement. After one of the nurses on the ward was confirmed on Saturday last week to have contracted COVID-19, the
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