■FINANCE
Cuts to 65 S Korean firms
South Korean banks have selected 65 financially troubled firms for sweeping restructuring or liquidation, financial authorities said yesterday. The firms were picked by six creditor banks, which since April have reviewed the credit risk of hundreds of indebted big firms, the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service said in a joint statement. Of the 65 selected for action, 38 will undergo a restructuring program while the remainder face liquidation or court management, it said. The 65 include 15 construction firms, three shipbuilders and one shipping company, it said without identifying them.
■BANKING
Mizuho to issue shares
Japan’s second-biggest bank Mizuho Financial Group plans to boost its capital through a share issue worth ¥857.6 billion (US$9.6 billion) next month, the company said yesterday. It said the issue would replace an earlier plan announced last month to raise ¥800 billion. The massive planned offer comes in anticipation of new rules on bank capital levels from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
■JAPAN
CPI falls 1.2% from last year
Consumer prices fell for the 15th straight month last month as deflation kept its grip on the world’s second biggest economy, the government said. The country’s core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes fresh food, fell 1.2 percent from a year earlier. Core CPI for Tokyo fell 1.3 percent this month. The reading is considered a barometer of price trends nationwide.
■MANUFACTURING
Singapore sees output surge
Singapore said yesterday that manufacturing output surged a record 58.6 percent year on year last month as factories raced to meet robust foreign orders for electronics and pharmaceuticals. Last month’s factory production, which eclipsed the previous record high of 49.7 percent posted in April, was almost double the 32.1 percent forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires’ poll of analysts.
■FRANCE
Q1 economy grew 0.1%
The country saw growth of 0.1 percent in the first quarter, the state statistics agency said yesterday, while upgrading its figure for growth in the final quarter of last year to 0.6 percent. The 0.1 percent rise in GNP was in line with its earlier estimate. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed actively looking for work rose by 22,600 last month, an increase of 0.8 percent, the labor and finance ministries said in a statement. The total number of jobseekers was 2.7 million, the highest since May 2005.
■AUTOMAKERS
VW to name Porsche head
European auto giant Volkswagen (VW) intends to name the top aide of one of its bosses as head of luxury sports carmaker Porsche, which VW is in the process of taking over, press reports said yesterday. The head of VW’s supervisory board, Ferdinand Piech, has decided to make Matthias Mueller Porsche’s chief executive in a move that would cement control over the maker of iconic 911 sports cars, the daily Handelsblatt reported. Mueller is “a close confident of Martin Winterkorn,” the VW chief executive, the newspaper said. His nomination should be formally announced next month, Handelsblatt and the Financial Times said.
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
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