■ AUTOMOBILES
VW expands Scania stake
Volkswagen (VW), Europe’s biggest carmaker, said yesterday it had obtained regulatory approvals to take a majority voting stake in Swedish truck maker Scania. “The majority voting stake is expected to be acquired on July 22,” in a deal that will cost VW around 2.8 billion euros (US$4.4 billion), a statement said. EU officials had approved the deal on June 13, but VW still needed various national authorities to stamp it as well. VW will increase its share of voting rights in Scania from 37.98 percent to 68.60 percent, while its shareholding is to rise from 20.89 percent to 37.73 percent, it said.
■ ELECTRONICS
Matsushita mulls new plant
Japan’s Matsushita Electric said yesterday it was considering building a new factory for lithium-ion batteries to expand market share amid stiff competition and growing demand. Lithium-ion batteries, which are rechargeable and have high storage capacity, are used in computers and other electronics and have increasingly been put to use in the automotive and aerospace industries. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, best known for its Panasonic brand, will spend more than ¥100 billion (US$952 million) on the plant to open as soon as 2010 in the Osaka region, Japanese media reported. A Matsushita spokesman said only that the company “is studying various growth strategies in our electrical business but currently nothing has been decided.”
■ FINANCE
Daiwa eyes Brazilian link
Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group Inc will tie up in brokerage operations with a leading Brazilian private bank, the Banco Itau group, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. In the first full-scale tie-up between a Japanese brokerage and a major Brazilian financial group, the partnership will cover such areas as investment banking operations and the handling of buy and sell orders for stocks, the business daily reported. The two banks were to announce later yesterday that they had reached a basic agreement, which may evolve into a capital tie-up in the future, the report said.
■ APPLIANCES
Electrolux reports drop
Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux yesterday reported a strong drop in second-quarter results this year, citing weaker sales in North America and Western Europe. The group posted a pre-tax profit of 140 million kronor (US$23 million), down some 80 percent from a pre-tax profit of 752 million kronor for the corresponding period last year. Net sales were 25.58 billion kronor, down 0.8 percent, with the figure partly affected by exchange rates. Chief executive Hans Straberg said that Electrolux had lowered its outlook for the full year. The group expected an operating income of 3.3 to 3.9 billion kronor excluding items affecting comparability, he said.
■ TRAVEL
Asiatravel forecasts growth
Online hotel reservation service provider Asiatravel.com forecast yesterday that it would maintain room-bookings growth despite a drop in Asia-bound traffic from major markets. It plans to launch Web sites in Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese and Arabic, a statement said. It has also been expanding its services. Customers can book flights as well as hotel and flight packages departing from 10 countries. By the end of this year, Asiatravel.com’s customers will be able to purchase combined hotel and flight packages for all key countries in Asia.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
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