World Business Quick Take

■ LCD TVs
Sony eyes global sales
Sony Corp, the world's No. 2 consumer electronics maker, plans to step up efforts to sell plasma and LCD TVs worldwide, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, without citing source.
The company will start making and selling plasma televisions early this year in China, while moving output of liquid-crystal televisions to Spain, the report said. Sony also plans to set up a plasma and liquid-crystal television production facility in North America, the paper said. Sony officials couldn't be reached for comment. Sony plans to expand output to take 30 percent of the global market, the paper said. The company expects liquid-crystal television sales to jump six-fold to 480,000 units in the business year starting April 1 from this year, while sales of plasma TV will probably rise 250 percent to 280,000.

■ Real estate
Shanghai risks bubble
A property bubble in Shanghai appears to be forming after China's largest city won the right to host the 2010 World Exposition, prompting the mayor to vow new measures to prevent prices from spinning out of control, state media said yesterday. The city will try to rein in runaway prices by controlling the land supply rather than by issuing decrees, Mayor Han Zheng (韓正) told Xinhua news agency. Shanghai must build a property market structure that can meet the needs of all the city's 16 million people, including people with average incomes, said Han. Shanghai has seen the market become more active, not only because of the 2010 Expo, but also the prospect of Formula One racing beginning in 2004 and a Vivendi Universal theme park slated to open in 2006.

■ Debt
Credit-card payments late
Overdue payments on credit cards issued by South Korean companies and banks rose by almost a quarter in January from the previous month, Yonhap News said. Card payments overdue more than a month rose to 8 trillion won (US$6.6 billion) at the end of January from 6.5 trillion won in December, Yonhap said, citing the Financial Supervisory Service. Consumers, taking advantage of low interest rates, have been borrowing beyond their means to buy homes, cars and other goods. South Korea's central bank trimmed key interest rates to a record 4 percent in 2001 to boost consumer spending as exports fell. A jump in household debt last year prompted the government to tighten regulations on mortgages and credit-card lending late last year.

■ Pharmaceuticals
Glaxo owes tax in Japan
British pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline's Tokyo-based investment firm failed to report ¥65 billion (US$555 million) in income to tax authorities over three years, reports said yesterday. The Tokyo taxation bureau is likely to order the firm, Glaxo, to pay more than ¥20 billion in tax and punitive fines, one of the largest-ever sums of money collected over inaccurate income reports, the Asahi Shimbun said. Glaxo allegedly failed to report stocks-sales and other profits at its Singapore subsidiary for the three years to December 2001, the daily said. Japan's tax haven law requires the Japanese parent firm to include income of a subsidiary in its own earnings in accordance with the equity stake it has in the unit, when the tax rate is 25 percent or less in the country the subsidiary is operating in.