■BANKING
Mizuho to sell new shares
Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group said yesterday it would sell new shares worth more than US$6 billion to bolster its finances as it reported a big loss because of the financial crisis. Japan’s top banks were initially seen as relatively immune to a US-born credit crunch, but they have been badly burned by the financial crisis because they have a large exposure to the stock market. Mizuho said it would sell new shares worth up to ¥600 billion (US$6.2 billion) to help it through the financial turmoil. It also plans to sell preferred securities although the exact amount has not been decided. It announced a net loss of ¥588.8 billion for the year to March, in line with an initial estimate last month, against a year-earlier profit of ¥311.22 billion. Mizuho expects to return to the black this year with a net profit of ¥200 billion.
■ASSET MANAGEMENT
Barclays to sell BGI: report
British bank Barclays PLC is in talks to sell its asset management business, Barclays Global Investors (BGI), a source familiar with the matter said. The Financial Times yesterday reported that Barclays was discussing a sale of the business for up to US$10 billion to potential bidders including US money manager Blackrock. Barclays and Blackrock declined to comment. Barclays has already agreed the sale of exchange-traded funds unit iShares, part of BGI, for £3 billion (US$4.5 billion) to buyout firm CVC Capital Partners. Barclays will need to pay CVC a US$175 million break-up fee if sells iShares to another bidder.
■TEXTILES
Nike plans to cut 1,750 jobs
Shoe and apparel company Nike Inc said on Thursday it will cut about 1,750 jobs worldwide, or 5 percent of its global work force. About 500 of the jobs lost will be at Nike’s world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. The company did not specify what departments the cuts would be in. Nike had announced in February that it would cut jobs as part of a realignment of its business. In March, it said it was reducing layers of management, among other organizational changes. The company plans to complete the reductions in the coming weeks.
■INVESTMENT
Temasek sells BOA stake
Singaporean state investment company Temasek sold its stake in Bank of America Corp (BOA), a move that likely added to large losses last year from its investments in US and European banks. Temasek held 188.8 million BOA shares in January, worth about US$2.6 billion. A Temasek spokeswoman yesterday declined to comment on the price the fund sold its shares for or the timing of the sale. Temasek said its investment portfolio fell about US$39 billion, or 31 percent, between March and November of last year to US$85 billion. Temasek also has large stakes in other financial companies such as Standard Chartered PLC, DBS Group Holdings Ltd and Barclays PLC.
■COMPUTERS
HP recalls batteries
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is recalling some 70,000 batteries for notebook computers because of a fire hazard, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday. The commission said the lithium-ion batteries being recalled were used in HP and Compaq notebook computers sold between August 2007 and March last year and were made in China. The commission provided a list of the computer models using the batteries on its Web site, CPSC.gov. It said HP was providing free replacement batteries.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
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
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
SECURITY: Grassroots civil servants would only need to disclose their travel, while those who have access to classified information would be subject to stricter regulations The government is considering requiring legislators and elected officials to obtain prior approval before traveling to China to prevent Chinese infiltration, an official familiar with national security said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) in March announced 17 measures to counter China’s growing infiltration efforts, including requiring all civil servants to make trips to China more transparent so they can be held publicly accountable. The official said that the government is considering amending the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to require all civil servants to follow strict regulations before traveling to China.
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