■ 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.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
A Chinese ship ran aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert, Philippine military officials said yesterday. When Philippine forces assessed that the Chinese fishing vessel appeared to have run aground in the shallows east of Thitu Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) on Saturday due to bad weather, Philippine military and coast guard personnel deployed to provide help, but later saw that the ship had been extricated, Philippine navy regional spokesperson Ellaine Rose Collado said. No other details were immediately available, including if there were injuries among
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