■ 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.
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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