■FINANCING
CIT reaches loan deal
US business lending giant CIT Group reached an emergency loan agreement worth US$3 billion with a group of its main bondholders to avoid bankruptcy, the firm said in a statement on Monday. The private loan, sought after the US government declined last week to offer the company another bailout, is “intended to provide CIT with liquidity necessary to ensure that its important base of small and middle market customers continues to have access to credit,” CIT said. The money is meant to give the company several weeks to set up an exchange of bondholders’ debt for equity.
■AUTOMOBILES
Volvo posts Q2 sales loss
The world’s second-biggest truck maker Volvo Group said yesterday that its net sales fell by a third in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. The Swedish group’s net sales fell by 32.7 percent to 53.9 million kronor (US$7 million) in the April to June period. Adjusted for currency changes and other factors, the decline was 45 percent. It made an operating loss of 6.8 million kronor compared to an operating profit of 7.2 million in the second quarter of last year.
■CHINA
State firms report losses
Profit at top state-owned companies fell 26.2 percent in the first half of the year but the decline is easing amid massive government stimulus spending, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The 136 banks, airlines, oil producers and other companies controlled by the central government reported total profit of 316 billion yuan (US$46 billion) from January to last month, Xinhua said, citing the director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The profit decline was an improvement over the first quarter’s more severe 41.8 percent contraction, Xinhua said.
■MEDIA
‘Globe’ staff take cuts
Staff at the teetering Boston Globe said they have agreed to a package of wage and benefit cuts, as the newspaper gropes for multimillion-dollar savings to stay afloat. The Globe’s owners, the New York Times Co, had asked workers to accept concessions in pay, benefits and job security as it looks to limit losses and find a buyer for the New England daily. The New York Times reported the deal could spell savings of up to US$10 million a year.
■FINANCING
Venturers cut investments
Venture capitalists cut their US investments in half during the spring, the second-consecutive quarter to mark a more than 50 percent decline, leaving the money flowing to startups at the slowest trickle in 12 years. Nearly US$3.7 billion poured into 612 venture-capital deals in the three months ending in last month, statistics from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association showed yesterday.
■SAUDI ARABIA
Kingdom Holding profits fall
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding said yesterday that its latest quarterly profits fell more than 80 percent from the same period of last year but showed signs of recovery. Kingdom showed profits of 92.1 million riyals (US$24.6 million) for the three months to June 30, compared with 534.7 million riyals for the same quarter last year, the company said. But the figure still represented an increase from the first quarter of this year, when Kingdom, tightly controlled by Alwaleed, reported a 50.1 million riyal profit.
THREATS: Naval facilities have been built in Shanghai and Zhejiang, while airbases have been expanded in Xiamen, Fuzhou and Zhangpu, across the Strait from Taiwan The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building large-scale military infrastructure at five sites along the eastern coast of China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a recent report. The latest issue of the council’s Mainland China Situation Quarterly said satellite photos showed military infrastructure such as air force and naval bases being constructed along the eastern coast of China. That means the CCP might be preparing for potential conflict in Taiwan, it said, adding that there are five such construction sites from north to south. A naval base has been built in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, with underground oil storage tanks, railway
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
A trial run of the north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s new Terminal 3 is to commence today, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The eight additional boarding gates would allow for more aircraft parking spaces that are expected to boost the airport’s capacity by 5.8 million passengers annually, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Kuo-shian (林國顯) said. The concourse, designed by a team led by British architect Richard Rogers, provides a refreshing space, Lin said, adding that travelers would enjoy the tall and transparent design that allows sunshine to stream into the concourse through glass curtain walls. The
The Presidential Office today thanked the US for enacting the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law, signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday, is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct such a review "not less than every five years." It must then submit an updated
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