■ENERGY
CNOOC plans Bridas deal
CNOOC Ltd (中國海洋石油), China’s biggest offshore oil explorer announced it will buy Argentina’s Bridas Group from Carlos Bulgheroni for US$3.1 billion, a stock exchange filing in Hong Kong said. The transaction gives Beijing-based CNOOC a 40 percent stake in Pan American Energy, a joint venture between Bridas and BP Plc. CNOOC chairman Fu Chengyu (傅成玉) said the company has made “good progress” in collaborating with foreign companies since December 2008.
■INTERNET
Google ‘99.9%’ on China
A newspaper Web site is reporting Google Inc is “99.9 percent” sure to close its search engine in China after negotiations over censorship stalled. The Financial Times cited an unnamed source familiar with the company’s thinking when it reported on Saturday that Google has drawn up plans to shutter Google.cn. The newspaper did not say when the company would shut the site. It comes a day after China’s top Internet regulator reiterated that Google must obey its laws or “pay the consequences.”
■FINANCE
UBS mulls commodities
UBS is considering possibly returning to its commodities business this year, some of which it sold during the financial crisis, a Swiss newspaper said on Saturday, citing the co-head of UBS’s investment bank. The Neue Zuercher Zeitung, which gave no direct quotes, reported co-chief executive Carsten Kengeter as saying that UBS was about two thirds of the way to reconstituting its fixed income, currencies and commodities business. A spokesman for UBS confirmed the article was accurate.
■INVESTMENT
Kuwaiti firm posts loss
Global Investment House, a leading Kuwaiti investment firm, which is implementing a debt restructuring plan, said yesterday it posted a loss last year for the second straight year. Global said in a statement on the Kuwait Stock Exchange that it posted a loss of 148.8 million dinars (US$516 million) last year compared with a shortfall of 257.6 million dinars in the previous year. Meanwhile, Investment Dar, a leading Islamic investment firm, on Saturday filed for legal protection under Kuwait’s financial stability law to shield itself against court cases by creditors while it plans a debt restructuring.
■ENERGY
Inter RAO opens in Havana
Russian energy giant Inter RAO has opened an office in Havana as a first step toward forming a joint venture to operate a thermoelectric plant west of the Cuban capital, the Opciones newspaper reported on Saturday. The joint company Generacion Mariel, operated by Inter RAO and the Cuban energy firm Union Electrica will begin “the modernization of the thermoelectric plant ... that will renew four generators, at a power of 100 MW, and the construction of two more of the same strength,” Opciones reported.
■COMPUTERS
Dell sues over pricey LCDs
Dell Inc, the third-biggest personal-computer maker, sued Sharp Corp, Hitachi Ltd and three other LCD panel makers over allegations they conspired to fix prices and overcharged for their products. Dell alleged the practice has continued since 1996 in its complaint filed on Friday in US federal court in San Francisco.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
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