■ BANKING
Demand high for stock
French bank Societe Generale, forced into a capital increase by a massive rogue trader scandal, said on Tuesday that demand for the new shares totaled almost twice the amount of stock on offer. The group launched the operation in February to raise 5.5 billion euros (US$8.5 billion) to bolster confidence and compensate for losses attributed to unauthorized trading by Jerome Kerviel, who faces criminal charges. Societe Generale said demand for the new shares totaled 1.8 time the number of shares being issued. The total losses from Kerviel's trading were put at 4.911 billion euros by the bank.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Yachiyo builds new plant
A Honda subsidiary is building a new plant in Japan to build mini-vehicles, the Japanese car maker said yesterday, as soaring gas prices boosts demand for the cheap, fuel-efficient tiny cars. Yachiyo Industry Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co, will build a new plant in Mie Prefecture in central Japan, with engine production set to start next year and auto production a year later, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement. Production capacity, when combined with an older nearby plant, will total 240,000 a year, and the new plant will make mini-vehicles such as Life and Zest models, Honda said.
■ FOREX
China seeks alternatives
China's vast sovereign wealth fund is expanding the scope of its investments beyond traditional assets like stocks and bonds to private equity and hedge funds, state media reported yesterday. The US$200 billion China Investment Corp (中國投資公司) has already entrusted money to external asset managers to focus on these alternative investments, the China Securities Journal said, citing Jesse Wang (汪建熙), the fund's vice president. Wang also said that the fund planned to set up branches in global financial centers. "The basic point for our overseas investments is being a financial investor. We seek maximum investment returns with manageable risks," the newspaper quoted Wang as saying.
■ AVIATION
Boeing to protest contract
Boeing said on Monday that it would protest the Air Force's award of a US$35 billion contract to build aerial refueling planes to a group that includes its European rival Airbus. The protest, to be made yesterday to the Government Accountability Office, had appeared increasingly likely in recent days as Boeing officials issued a series of statements indicating that they felt they had been treated unfairly. Boeing has a long history of making refueling tankers and was widely expected to win the contract. The GAO would have 100 days to review the action.
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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