■INSURANCE
AIG drops Goldman Sachs
American International Group (AIG) has replaced Goldman Sachs as its main corporate adviser with Citigroup and Bank of America Corp, the New York Times said, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. AIG met with its two new advisers on Thursday, the paper said. While AIG is the first company known to have canceled major work with Goldman, European officials and some local officials in the US have also said they are reconsidering their relationships with the company, the paper said.
■ELECTRONICS
Panasonic slashes losses
Panasonic Corp slashed its losses for the January-March quarter to just under US$1 billion as the world’s biggest maker of plasma TVs benefited from a recovery in global sales. Panasonic said yesterday its losses for the fiscal fourth quarter was ¥88.9 billion (US$971 million) compared with losses of ¥444.3 billion a year earlier. Quarterly sales jumped 16 percent to ¥2.198 trillion. For the fiscal year ended March 31, Panasonic’s losses shrank to ¥103.5 billion from losses of ¥379 billion a year earlier. The company is expecting to return to the black for the fiscal year through March next year, posting a ¥50 billion profit on a 19 percent rise in sales to ¥8.8 trillion.
■ELECTRONICS
Toshiba returns to profit
Toshiba Corp returned to profitability in the January-March quarter, lifted by higher sales of consumer electronics, home appliances and semiconductors. The Japanese conglomerate — whose vast business spans memory chips to nuclear power systems — said yesterday it booked a fourth quarter net profit of ¥ 48.6 billion on revenue of ¥1.85 trillion. It stayed in the red for the full fiscal year through March 31, though the Tokyo-based company managed to slash losses through cost cuts and restructuring. Toshiba posted a net loss of ¥19.7 billion compared with a ¥343.6 billion net loss the previous year. Revenue fell 4 percent to ¥6.38 trillion.
■BANKING
RBS reports narrowed loss
Partly nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) yesterday reported a narrower loss in the first quarter as the global economic recovery led to a reduction in impairments on bad loans. RBS reported a net loss of £248 million (US$363.5 million) for the first three months of the year, compared with £902 million a year earlier. Impairments for bad loans fell from £2.86 billion to £2.68 billion. Income was down 4.4 percent at £8.9 billion. “Global recovery is helping impairments fall a little faster than we expected, though lumpy events may well interrupt that trend,” chief executive Stephen Hester said.
■INSURANCE
Munich Re posts profit rise
German reinsurer Munich Re AG reported an 11 percent rise in its first-quarter net profit as improved investment income helped balance out millions of euros in claims from the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. The reinsurer based in Munich, Germany, earned 482 million euros (US$613.4 million) in the January-March period, compared with 433 million euros a year earlier. The company said yesterday that the first quarter was “an eventful start” to the year because of about 700 million euros in payments related to claims from the quakes along with the European winter storm Xynthia. Still, Munich Re is confident it will earn a net profit of more than 2 billion euros this year.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA
COMMITTED: Lai said that Taiwan deeply appreciated the leaders’ statement, adding that the nation would remain steadfast in working to advance regional peace and prosperity US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait in a joint statement issued after they met in Washington for their first official meeting. Trump and Ishiba “affirmed their determination to pursue a new golden age for US-Japan relations that upholds a free and open Indo-Pacific and brings peace and prosperity to a violent and disorderly world,” the US-Japan Joint Leaders’ Statement said. “The two leaders emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity for the