■CASINOS
MGM unaffected by Dubai
Casino operator MGM Mirage said on Friday that its CityCenter joint venture with Dubai World, the investment arm of the Dubai government, is not affected by Dubai World’s request to delay repaying billions in debt and will still open on time. MGM representative Yvette Monet said in a statement that the joint venture is unaffected by Dubai World’s announcement. “CityCenter is fully funded, on schedule and ready to begin welcoming guests starting next week,” Monet said. CityCenter is an US$8.5 billion casino complex in Las Vegas that is half-owned by Dubai World. The 27 hectare development of plush resorts, condominiums, a retail mall and one casino on the Las Vegas Strip will start opening in phases on Tuesday.
■STEEL
ThyssenKrupp to cut jobs
German steel maker ThyssenKrupp AG reported a loss of 1.87 billion euros (US$2.8 billion) for the 2008-2009 fiscal year and on Friday announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs and sell divisions employing another 15,000 people. The loss for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 compared with a net profit of 2.3 billion euros the previous year for ThyssenKrupp, based in Duesseldorf. The company said the drop was due to a number of restructuring charges and the impact of the global economic downturn on the steel industry. At the same time, the company faced construction costs for building up businesses in Alabama and Brazil. Revenue fell 24 percent to 40.5 billion euros (US$60 billion) from 53.4 billion euros in the previous fiscal year.
■AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai quits cars in Japan
Hyundai Motor Co said yesterday it would pull out of the Japanese passenger vehicle market amid sluggish sales, and instead focus on commercial vehicle sales there. Hyundai, South Korea’s No. 1 automaker, has found it tough going in Japan and sold only about 15,000 passenger cars there since 2001 when it made inroads into the home market of international rival Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s biggest automaker. The timing of the pull-out will be decided after consulting with dealerships in Japan, Hyundai spokesman Ki Jin-ho said.
■ECONOMY
Spain approves reform plan
Spain’s government on Friday approved a sweeping reform package designed to reduce its recession-hit economy’s reliance on the construction sector and usher in a more sustainable growth model. The reforms include measures to streamline bureaucracy, improve education and encourage companies to have a more international focus as well as tax breaks for firms that innovate and the promotion of investment in the renewable energy sector and high-tech industries. The plan is designed to take effect next year.
■CONFECTIONERY
Cadbury boss likes Hershey
US chocolate maker Hershey is culturally a good match for Cadbury, the British confectioner’s chief executive said in an interview released yesterday. Todd Stitzer told the **Financial Times newspaper that the ethical values of the US brand tied in with Cadbury. Cadbury was founded by Quakers who marketed cocoa drinks as an alternative to alcohol, while Milton Hershey, who started the US firm, was inspired by Cadbury’s Bourneville village in building his Pennsylvanian company town Hershey. “I would prefer Cadbury to be in an environment where its values and principles could continue,” Stitzer said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained