■INSURANCE
AIA submits IPO documents
AIA Group Ltd, the main Asia unit of American International Group Inc (AIG), submitted preliminary documents to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for an initial public offering (IPO), two people familiar with the filing said. The filing means that New York-based AIG may aim to hold the IPO late next month or in early November, said one of the people, who declined to be identified. AIG in July hired Mark Tucker, former chief executive officer of Prudential PLC, to lead AIA as the unit prepares for an IPO. The company turned to a share sale after London-based Prudential backed out of a deal to buy AIA for US$35.5 billion.
■CHEMICALS
Chinese mull Potash bid
Chinese and other investors have approached at least one big Canadian pension manager about a bid for Canada’s Potash Corp to rival BHP Billiton’s US$39 billion hostile offer. Alberta Investment Management Corp said it was not interested, because the economics did not work. China’s state-owned chemicals giant Sinochem (中國中化) has reportedly hired HSBC to evaluate options and chatter persists that sovereign wealth funds, such as China’s US$300 billion China Investment Corp (中國投資公司), may also be seeking a bid of some kind.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche to cut costs, jobs
Swiss giant Roche said yesterday it was launching a cost-cutting program which could lead to job cuts. The company said in a statement that “mounting pressures to curb healthcare costs” in the US and Europe were among the reasons for the move. It added that more details on the measures and their potential impact on jobs would be announced before the end of the year. The pharmaceutical giant currently employs 80,000 people.
■AVIATION
New low-cost airline mulled
Air France-KLM is considering setting up a “low-cost” domestic carrier to meet intense competition in the French market from budget rivals, company sources said on Thursday. The new airline, dubbed “Air France Express,” could be established next year with bases in the southern cities of Marseille, Nice and Toulouse if agreement can be reached with unions, the sources said. “Studies are underway to find some way to fight off the ‘low-cost’ airlines. Among ideas being considered, is setting up a new entity within Air France-KLM,” one of the sources said, asking not to be named.
■SOUTH KOREA
Economy grows 1.4 percent
The economy grew 1.4 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier, slightly less than earlier predicted because of weaker construction investment, the South Korean central bank said yesterday. The Bank of Korea revised its GDP figure for the second quarter from an earlier prediction of a 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter expansion. It said Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 7.2 percent last quarter compared with a year earlier.
■COMPUTERS
NASA launches iPad app
NASA has landed on the iPad. Nearly a year after launching a free application for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the US space agency has created a program for the latest device from Apple. The NASA App HD for the iPad is available for free at Apple’s App Store. The NASA iPad application features live streaming video from NASA TV, launch schedules, current mission information, maps, on-demand video from NASA archives, feature stories, thousands of images and more.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
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
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