■AUTOMOBILES
Geely eyes Volvo deal
Chinese car maker Geely Automobile (吉利汽車) said yesterday it will raise about US$334 million in a deal with an affiliate of Goldman Sachs, building up cash for a possible takeover of Ford Motors Co’s Volvo Cars. Geely announced it would issue HK$2.586 billion (US$334 million) in convertible bonds and warrants to Goldman Sachs Capital Partners VI Fund. The money raised will be used to pay for potential acquisitions and other needs, Geely said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Geely’s announcement made no mention of the company’s interest in Volvo, though a company spokesman confirmed earlier that the Hangzhou-based automaker’s parent company was considering bidding for the Swedish automaker.
■GLASS
LG Chem eyes LCD plan
South Korea’s largest chemicals company LG Chem said yesterday it would invest 3 trillion won (US$2.5 billion) by 2018 in producing glass for liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels. Work will start this year on a production line to open by early 2012 and six more lines will be added in phases by 2018, the company said in a statement. When all the lines are operating LG Chem said it aims to produce more than 50 million square meters of LCD glass every year, with annual sales of 2 trillion won (US$1.7 billion). “LCD glass production is a high-yielding business which leaves a high profit margin of some 40 to 50 percent of sales,” an LG Chem official said.
■BRAZIL
Moody’s boosts rating
Moody’s Investor Services has given Brazil a boost by raising its debt rating to investment grade. The upgrade came a year after the other two major rating agencies took the same step. Moody’s says the outlook for Brazil’s economy is positive, meaning it could get another upgrade in the future. The upgrade issued on Tuesday means Brazil has been labeled by Moody’s as a safe place to invest. Fitch Ratings gave Brazil its upgrade in May last year, a month after Standard & Poor’s was the first to say the nation had reached investment grade.
■NEW ZEALAND
GDP shows slight growth
New Zealand showed signs of emerging from recession yesterday but officials said growth was so slight it did not mark a definite turning point in the economy. Statistics New Zealand said GDP rose less than 0.1 percent in the three months to June following five quarters of contraction. Finance Minister Bill English said the data showed the economy was stabilizing, but the country remained well short of a strong recovery that would lead to sustainable jobs and growth. For the year to the end of June, the economy shrank 1.8 percent, compared with 2.5 percent growth in the year ending in June last year. It marks the biggest annual decline in economic activity since 1987.
■COMPUTING
IBM to launch software
International Business Machines Corp (IBM), the world’s largest computer-service provider, is introducing its first software for netbooks, tapping into the growing market for the scaled-down laptops. The software, called the IBM Smart Work Client, will run on so-called open-sourced Linux programs instead of Microsoft Corp’s Windows, the company said yesterday in a statement. Armonk, New York-based IBM said it will start selling the software in Africa and then expand to other emerging markets.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
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