■ FINANCE
BNP hires Lehman head
BNP Paribas Securities in Japan said it had hired Adrian Averre, formerly head of vanilla option trading at Lehman Brothers Japan Inc. BNP Paribas appointed Averre, 42, as head of its interest-rate and foreign-exchange trading, Kunihiro Murata, a spokesman at the firm said in an interview yesterday. Averre joined the French bank on March 1 and will primarily focus on expanding the firm's franchise in the yen rates trading area, including linear products, vanilla options and Libor exotics, a press release said. "Adrian's appointment is part of our long-standing commitment and ambition in Japan," Hikaru Ogata, general manager and head of fixed income of the firm, said in the release.
■ COST OF LIVING
Millionaire lifestyle pricey
Britons need a lot more than ?1 million (US$2 million) to enjoy the lifestyle of the rich and famous, a report by the National Lottery by the Centre for Economics and Business Research said yesterday. You need at least ?5.8 million to consider yourself "comfortably rich" in Britain, the report said. That sum allows you to buy a smart house, a luxury holiday villa and a top-of-the-range car. High property prices and rising inflation means a ?1.7 million National Lottery win would require careful spending to make the windfall last. It said ?108.6 million is needed to fund a lifetime of extravagant spending as enjoyed by David and Victoria Beckham and Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie.
■ TELECOMS
Sony Ericsson reviews ties
Sony Ericsson said yesterday that it was reviewing its business ties with NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile telephone operator, which is struggling amid an industry price war. But the company, a joint venture between Japan's Sony Corp and Sweden's LM Ericsson, declined to confirm reports it will stop making handsets for DoCoMo. "It is true that Sony Ericsson is reviewing part of its product development plans with DoCoMo," company spokesman Toshiyuki Kawamura said. But he said the firm would continue to provide products to DoCoMo. The Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday that Sony Corp would stop making mobile phones for NTT DoCoMo and instead focus on overseas markets.
■ FINANCE
Carlyle warns on sales
Listed mortgage-bond fund Carlyle Capital Corp Ltd said yesterday that it is in talks with creditors to prevent the liquidation of some US$16 billion in securities. Carlyle Capital, which shook financial markets last week after missing margin calls with banks on financing for its US$21.7 billion portfolio of residential mortgage-backed bonds, said that it believed some US$5 billion of the securities held as collateral may have already been sold by some of the banks. The fund, an affiliate of the US-based private equity firm Carlyle Group, warned that if it fails to reach an agreement on debt repayments with the remaining lenders who hold around US$16 billion in securities, those lenders may also liquidate their securities. Carlyle Capital's troubles have raised fears that the assets will flood the market, further depressing prices on fixed-income securities, which have dropped sharply in recent weeks as banks pull back on their lending to funds and investment vehicles, leading to forced asset sales.
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
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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