■BANKING
UBS to cut 240 jobs
Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS said yesterday that 240 jobs would be cut from its wealth management division in the Asia-Pacific region as part of a cost reduction exercise. Despite the job losses, the region remains important for the company, UBS said in a statement from its Singapore office. The job cuts represent less than three percent of the bank’s total staff force in the region and under eight percent of its employees in the wealth management group, a UBS spokeswoman said. She said the job cuts extend across all levels within the wealth management group.
■TIRES
Alabama plant to close
The US subsidiary of French tire maker Michelin said on Monday it will shut a US plant in Alabama, where it employs 1,000 people, due to an “unprecedented” slump in demand. Michelin North America said the closure of the plant in Opelika, Alabama, by Oct. 31 was part of a restructuring plan for its manufacturing operations “in response to the unprecedented drop in market demand.” “The decision comes in the wake of the continuing economic crisis as consumers are driving fewer miles, purchasing fewer vehicles and delaying tire replacement purchases,” the company said in a statement.
■BANKING
Fortis reports loss
Fortis Bank, the former Belgian banking arm of stricken financial group Fortis, yesterday reported a loss of 20.6 billion euros (US$27.5 billion) for last year owing to the group’s break-up and losses on toxic assets. The bulk of the loss, which was roughly in line with a previous estimate, came from the “negative impact of 12.5 billion euros” relating to the parent company’s carve-up by the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg states. As part of a bailout of the group, Belgium took over Fortis Bank and is now in the process of selling a 75 percent stake to French banking group BNP Paribas. Shareholders in Fortis Holding are to vote on the sale of Fortis Bank to BNP on April 28 and April 29.
■OIL
Shell talking to Chinese firms
Royal Dutch Shell is talking to Chinese oil companies about a possible bid to develop oil fields in Iraq, CEO Jeroen van der Veer said yesterday. “We are in the process of forming partnerships for certain bids, and Chinese companies are a part of that,” van der Veer said. He declined to say which potential partners Shell is talking to, or which fields they might bid on. Van der Veer said the deadline for bids is expected to be in late June or early July and details on partnerships would be announced then.
■COMMUNICATIONS
Mobile data use soars
People in Hong Kong people sent 14 times as much mobile data in January than they did in the same month two years ago, figures released yesterday revealed. The rise in the sending of mobile data from phones and hand-held computers also represented a four-fold increase on the figure from January last year, the territory’s telecommunications authority said. Figures from the authority show that there were 10.5 million mobile phone subscriptions in Hong Kong in January, equivalent to 1.5 subscriptions for every person in the former British colony. Every mobile phone customer sent an average of 41 SMS messages in January while the total number of SMS messages sent was 421.5 million, a 22 percent year-on-year rise.
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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