■ STEEL
POSCO inks Daewoo deal
South Korea’s top steelmaker, POSCO, signed a final deal yesterday to buy a 68 percent stake in trading and energy firm Daewoo International for 3.37 trillion won (US$2.83 billion), officials said. The purchase is seen as helping POSCO, the world’s fourth-largest steel firm, to secure a steady supply of raw materials and develop new revenue streams. The agreement was announced by state debt clearer the Korea Asset Management Corp, which bailed out troubled firms after the 1997 to 1998 East Asian financial crisis. It was the largest shareholder in Daewoo International with a 35.5 percent stake while other creditors, including the Export-Import Bank of Korea, had a combined 32.65 percent.
■ PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi-Aventis takes its time
The head of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis yesterday said he was in no hurry to pursue a bid to acquire US biotechnology firm Genzyme. CEO Chris Viehbacher, in an interview with the French financial newspaper Les Echos, said his intention at the moment was to confer with Genzyme counterpart Henri Termeer. Sanofi-Aventis on Sunday unveiled a US$18.5 billion offer for Genzyme, hinting it might launch a hostile bid. Sanofi said it was disclosing to Genzyme’s shareholders the contents of its offer, which it initially made last month, after the company’s management rejected it on Aug. 11 and declined to enter into talks.
■ ELECTRONICS
End of an era at LG
South Korea’s LG Electronics said yesterday it would no longer produce bulky cathode ray tube TVs for domestic sale due to falling demand and the end of analogue-based broadcasting service. LG, which started manufacturing TVs in 1966, will also stop selling the CRT TVs once existing inventories are gone, a spokesman said. It will stop making the TVs for the domestic market today, but continue to produce them for overseas markets including India, Vietnam, Brazil, China and Egypt where demand is still booming, he said.
■ COMPUTERS
KT seeks to beat iPad launch
KT Corp said it would introduce a tablet computer powered by Google Inc’s Android operating system in South Korea on Sept. 10, before Apple Inc’s iPad device goes on sale in the country. KT, South Korea’s largest provider of telephone and Internet services, aims to sell 100,000 of the handheld computer by the end of the year, Kim Sung-chul, a vice president at the Seongnam-based company, said at a briefing in Seoul yesterday. The device, called Identity Tab, will be made by Seoul-based Enspert Inc, KT said.
■ TELECOMS
China gains 3G users
China added 2.87 million 3G users last month to reach 28.1 million users, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on its Web site yesterday.
■ REAL ESTATE
Seoul easing mortgage rules
South Korea will ease mortgage-lending rules and extend tax breaks to encourage buyers after home sales slumped to the lowest level in almost a year and a half. Shares of builders and banks surged on the news. Banks will be allowed to ease restrictions on mortgage loans for first-home buyers and owners of one residence until the end of March, the government said yesterday. The waiver for taxes on home sales will be extended by two years until the end of 2012, it said.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
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