■AUTOMOBILES
BMW posts Q3 drop
The German luxury car maker BMW yesterday posted a 73.8 percent drop in third quarter net profit after being slammed by a collapse in the market for high-end vehicles. A BMW statement said net profit plummeted to 78 million euros (US$115 million) from 298 million euros in the third quarter of last year. Core earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) was also sharply lower, falling by 85.8 percent to 55 million euros in the three-month period, while sales edged lower to 11.76 billion euros from 12.6 billion. That reflected “sales volume decreases caused by the weak state of the economy and the competitive environment,” the statement said. The company said it aimed for positive group earnings for the full year.
■INSURANCE
Reinsurance posts profit
Swiss Reinsurance Co beat analyst expectations by reporting a third-quarter net profit of 334 million Swiss francs (US$327 million) yesterday. The Zurich-based company said earnings per share reached SF0.97, compared with a loss of SF0.93 per share in the same period last year, when it recorded a quarterly loss of SF304 million. The company said premiums dropped 11 percent to SF5.84 billion from SF6.53 billion in the third quarter of last year. Zurich said payouts dropped markedly during the quarter as customers made fewer property, health and life insurance claims.
■RETAIL
Metro remains stable
The biggest German retailer Metro said yesterday that it had maintained its third quarter operating profit at 357 million euros (US$527 million). That represented “a clear improvement in the trend,” a company statement said. Sales were 4.6 percent lower at 15.6 billion euros, mainly owing to unfavorable foreign exchange effects with eastern European countries.
■CHINA
Shougang buys Delphi unit
An investment group led by state-owned steel maker Shougang Group (首鋼) said yesterday it had bought US-based Delphi Corp’s brake and suspension unit for about US$100 million. The purchase by BeijingWest Industries Group adds to a string of Chinese acquisitions abroad amid the global economic crisis. Delphi, based in Troy, Michigan, is reorganizing under bankruptcy court protection from creditors. The sale includes operations in the US, Poland, France, Britain, Mexico and China that employ about 3,000 people, BeijingWest said.
■MANAGEMENT
Ruiz quits amid scandal
Hector Ruiz, former CEO of chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc, is leaving his job with a spinoff company after a published report linking him to the Galleon Group insider trading case. GlobalFoundries Inc, a chip manufacturer, said on Monday that Ruiz would take a voluntary leave from his position as chairman before resigning officially on Jan. 4. Board member Alan Ross will take over as interim chairman immediately.
■INTERNET
Google learns Mandarin
Google’s voice search tool now understands Chinese. The Internet giant announced on Monday that users of Nokia S60 series mobile phones could now search the Internet using voice commands in Mandarin. “Up until now voice search has only been available in English, but the new version of Google Mobile App for Nokia S60 devices works for Mandarin speakers, too,” Google said in a blog post.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
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