■FINANCE
Citigroup names new head
Troubled US banking giant Citigroup on Wednesday named as its new chairman Richard Parsons, a longtime top executive at media giant Time Warner, to steer it through its most challenging period. Parsons pledged to revamp the bank as it moves to split into two business entities amid retrenchments, massive losses and a deepening global financial crisis. Parsons will succeed Win Bischoff as chairman of the board of directors, effective Feb. 23. Bischoff, with the bank since 2000, will retire later this year.
■AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai profits plunge
Hyundai Motor’s fourth-quarter profit fell sharply as the South Korean automaker absorbed increased branding expenditure while sales fell in its home market. Hyundai Motor Co earned 243.6 billion won (US$177.6 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, down 27.9 percent from 338 billion won in net profit posted a year earlier, it said in a release yesterday. The company, which, with affiliate Kia Motors Corp, forms the fifth-largest automotive group in the world, said sales in the quarter rose 1.1 percent to 8.83 trillion won from 8.74 trillion won. For all of last year, net profit declined 13.9 percent to 1.45 trillion won, while sales gained 5.1 percent to 32.2 trillion won.
■ELECTRONICS
LG posts loss in Q4
South Korea’s LG Electronics said yesterday it swung to a loss in the fourth quarter of last year, hit by big shortfalls at its flat-screen panel unit and tougher competition. Its net loss for the period stood at 671 billion won (US$489 million) compared to a 621 billion won net profit a year earlier. Sales increased 12.2 percent to 6.59 trillion won, but the operating balance recorded a 309 billion won loss from a 154 billion won profit a year earlier.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Disney trims management
Walt Disney Co said on Wednesday that it had offered severance packages to about 600 executives at its theme parks and resorts in the US to cut costs in the economic downturn. Disney said the voluntary separation plan was made to managers earning US$100,000 or more per year in an effort “to contain costs and maximize efficiency.” “Given the continued uncertainty of the economic environment, we must manage our business even more productively,” Walt Disney Parks and Resorts spokeswoman Leslie Goodman said in a statement.
■FINANCE
Belgium helps ailing KBC
Authorities in the Flanders region of Belgium have agreed to provide struggling bank KBC with 2 billion euros (US$2.6 billion) in exchange for a non-voting stake in its capital, KBC said yesterday. “The group is further strengthening its capital base by a two-billion-euro non-dilutive core capital issue to be subscribed by the Flemish regional government,” KBC said in a statement. “In addition, a stand-by core capital facility of 1.5 billion euros is also being provided,” it said.
■MALAYSIA
No hiring of foreign workers
The government has banned the hiring of new foreign workers in the manufacturing and services sectors amid fears the economic crisis will lead to more job losses for locals, reports said yesterday. Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar told the New Straits Times there was no reason to bring in foreigners after a report found 45,000 people would be laid off over Lunar New Year.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
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