Archive for the ‘Asia Pacific’ Category

Reliance To Pay Atlas $1.7 Billion For Marcellus Stake

Posted by Amita Kalra on April 9th, 2010

Reliance Industries, the largest private sector firm in India will pay $1.7 billion to form a joint venture in the Marcellus Shale with U.S. based Atlas Energy.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance, has long been looking to venture out of the country, broaden its businesses including refining, oil and gas exploration and petrochemicals, and break into the overseas markets. The company in fact, raised a war chest of $2 billion by selling stock in recent months.

Bankrupt petrochemicals firm LyondellBasell recently rejected a bid from Reliance that valued the target at about $14.5 billion, and the Indian firm also lost a race for Canadian oil sands firm Value Creation, in which it wanted to take a majority stake for $2 billion.

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U.S. To Delay Report on Chinese Currency

Posted by Amita Kalra on April 3rd, 2010

Although the US announced that it would for the time being shelve its decision on whether to name China as a currency manipulator (otherwise due on April 15), Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also added that China was in fact relying on “currency intervention” and must move to a “more market-oriented exchange rate.” In a written statement Saturday, Mr. Geithner cited a spate of high-level meetings between China and the U.S. over the next three months as a reason to delay. The meetings, he said, “are the best avenue for advancing U.S. interests at this time.”

China has long been accused of undervaluing its currency Yuan in order to give its exports a competitive advantage in the global market. U.S. manufacturers say China’s yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent and is a big reason for the massive trade deficit, which totaled $226.8 billion last year, the largest imbalance with any country.

A growing number of lawmakers say the practice has contributed to the U.S.’s large trade deficit with China and cost Americans jobs.

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Chinese Drywall Corrosive; Needs To Be Removed

Posted by Amita Kalra on April 2nd, 2010

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, homeowners must remove certain drywall made in China that can cause corrosion of electrical wiring. This material has been linked to corrosion of metal and wires in homes and elevated levels of hydrogen sulfide, which may cause eye irritation, coughing and sinus infections.

“All of the problem drywall and all of the electric wiring needs to be taken out,” commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum told reporters today on a conference call to discuss the agency’s latest findings.

About 80 percent of more than 3,000 complaints filed by homeowners were in Florida and Louisiana, where imported drywall was used to rebuild homes after hurricanes in 2004 and 2005. Homeowners should replace the problem drywall, wiring, gas- service piping, sprinkler systems and smoke alarms, according to the report from the Bethesda, Maryland-based consumer agency and the Housing and Urban Development Department. The Consumer Product Safety Commission began receiving complaints in late 2008 about sulfur odors in Florida homes built in 2006 and 2007, according to a November report. Homeowners reported illnesses, air-conditioning failures and visible corrosion of metals such as electrical wires in the walls.

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Ford Sells Volvo To Geely

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 28th, 2010

American multinational Ford Motor Co. has sold its Volvo brand to Chinese Automaker Geely Automobile, in a $1.8 billion virtual all-cash deal. This is China’s largest off shore auto deal.

Ford bought Volvo in 1999 for $6.45 billion, then struggled to make the brand profitable as the U.S. auto industry slumped. It began looking for potential buyers for Volvo in 2008. By October 2009, Geely was named the preferred bidder, and the two sides had been negotiating since. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, Ford said in a press release. Ford will not retain any ownership in Volvo.

“We think it’s a fair price for a good business, and yes, we’re happy with the deal we’ve achieved with Geely,” Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer, told the Associated Press. “Volvo can continue to build its business and return to profitability.”

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Apple iPad To Come With 30,000 Free E-books

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 26th, 2010

The iPad, which is the second tablet computer developed by Apple is in fact a touch-screen computer that falls between a laptop and a smartphone. It’s almost here, and creating quite a bit of buzz ahead of its April 3 launch.

According to a report from AppAdvice, it will come with around 30,000 public domain books via Project Gutenberg. This is a sizable library that will now fit onto one’s nightstand, and with many great titles, it should thrill both avid and casual readers alike. Also these free titles will come along with a number of paid titles from most major publishers. The Project Gutenberg organization works to put public domain works into electronic format. Focusing on high quality nonfiction and literature, the collection includes the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, Charles Dickens, author of A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol, and even Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Access will be granted through the Stanza reader.

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Google Vs China – The Battle Is On

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 25th, 2010

In a business plan that continues to become more complicated by the minute, Google’s Chinese blunder is one that consistently continues to backfire. As Chinese partners close doors on the internet giant it is apparent that censorship in the Chinese domain is one that Google will not be able to avoid.

On Thursday, a public-relations director for Sina Corp., a popular Chinese Internet portal that carries a Google search bar, said it is considering finding a new search partner. This came just a day after Tianya.cn, which runs a leading online forum, said it plans to discontinue cooperation with Google on some projects. On Wednesday, TOM Group Ltd., a media company controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing, said it had removed Google’s search bar from its Chinese portal.

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Pepsi Co Develops Designer Salt

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 22nd, 2010

PepsiCo Inc, has reportedly developed a new ‘designer salt’ whose crystals are shaped and sized in a way that limits the amount of sodium intake, of the consumer. The production will begin at a pilot manufacturing plant in Texas, later this month.

This salt, it is expected, will cut sodium levels by 25% in its Lay’s Classic potato chips and even more than that in seasoned Lay’s chips like Sour Cream & Onion, PepsiCo said, and it could be used in other products like Cheetos and Quaker bars. It is still being studied and tested with consumers though.

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Bharti Gets $8.3 Billion in Funding for Zain Purchase

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 21st, 2010

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, said on Sunday that it has tied up $8.3 billion in funding to buy most of the African assets of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co. This takes it yet another step closer to concluding the deal, for which they had made an attempt in February. The deal is estimated to be about $9 billion in cash. It marks the Indian company’s latest attempt to enter a fast-growing overseas market as intense competition and price wars shrink its growth at home.

While Standard Chartered PLC is the lead arranger and adviser for $7.5 billion in financing, with Barclays Bank PLC as a joint lead adviser, other co-arrangers and advisers include State Bank of India Group, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, BNP Paribas S.A., Bank of America Merrill Lynch , Credit Agricole CIB, DBS Bank, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Bharti said.

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Google Vs. China

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 20th, 2010

Even as talks between Google and the Chinese government reach a virtual stalemate, Google intends to retain substantial business presence in the region.

If speculation is to be given any weight at all, the US internet group will be announcing the closure of its flagship local search engine; google.cn; as early as monday – just as it had threatened earlier, in case the government does not allow uncensored search results.

A state-owned Chinese newspaper, quoting an unnamed Google employee, reported yesterday that the company could announce the closure of google.cn on Monday. A person familiar with the situation said last week that Google had drawn up plans for the closure of the Chinese search engine and hoped to manage an orderly exit from the country. Google.cn is a joint venture between the company and a domestic partner since the government does not allow foreigners to hold content in the internet content business. Google’s workforce is employed by a wholly US based company, however.

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Google’s new TV Initiative

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 18th, 2010

In a quest to move it’s technology from the computer screen to the TV screen, and consequently from the office to the living room, Google has now partnered with Sony Corp and Intel Corp clearly aiming at grabbing the eyeballs just about everywhere they go.

This includes software to help users navigate among Web based offerings on television sets, and also, serve as a platform for other developers to create new programs. Technology could be included with future TVs, Blu-ray players or set-top boxes. Google is clearly looking to get its foot in the door in the market so it can reap the money to be earned form more advertising viewers.

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