Print

Mail

wiki links

World Business Quick Take

■ China
Investment in Shanghai up
Foreign investors continue pouring money into Shang-hai with contracted invest-ment jumping 39 percent to US$7 billion in the first seven months of the year, state press reported yester-day. The manufacturing sector was most favored by investors, with contracted foreign funds -- an indica-tion of future commitments but not necessarily the actual amount spent -- hitting US$4.34 billion in the period from January to last month, up 43.1 percent year-on-year, the Xinhua news agency reported. The city's service industry drew some US$2.65 billion in foreign investment in the first seven months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 33.5 percent, it said. Shanghai's booming housing attracted US$739 million during the same period. Total invest-ment into the city reached US$70.39 billion by the end of last month.

■ Telecoms
SingTel's credit rating cut
Singapore Telecommuni-cations Ltd had its credit rating lowered by Standard & Poor's on concern that the government's planned sale of its two-thirds stake in the company will hurt its credit profile. The long-term rating of the phone company, the biggest in Southeast Asia, was cut one level to A+, the fifth-highest investment grade, from AA-. The short-term rating was cut to A-1, the second-highest invest-ment grade, from A-1+. Singapore's government in May said it would sell the stake in conjunction with a free trade agreement it signed with the US. The sale, for which no time frame has been announced, would poten-tially remove government support for the company, Standard & Poor's said. Moody's has an A1 rating on SingTel's senior unsecured debt, the fifth-highest investment grade. Fitch rates SingTel's senior unsecured debt A, the sixth-highest. All three credit agencies rate the company's outlook as stable.

■ Telecoms
Verizon, union in talks
Verizon Communications Inc, the biggest US local-telephone company, and unions representing 78,000 employees were to continue contract negotiations yesterday, the Communi-cations Workers of America (CWA) said. "Several major issues have not yet been resolved," the CWA said in an e-mailed statement. Verizon workers will remain on the job during the talks, the union said. Verizon has been in negotiations with the CWA and another union for seven weeks, seeking to avoid a strike that analysts say may disrupt service in 13 states and hurt the company's sales and stock price. The main issues are health-care costs, job security, worker transfers and the unionization of Verizon's mobile-phone unit.

■ France
Alstom gets support
The French government is prepared to step in and aid the ailing energy and transportation manufac-turer Alstom "while respect-ing European regulations," a spokesman at the Finance Ministry said yesterday. The statement came after spec-ulation in the French media that the government would purchase up to 30 percent of Alstom stock to help the company deal with its liquidity crisis. Alstom has said that it was looking to raise some 600 million euros (US$681 million) in capital as part of a plan to keep from shutting down opera-tions. If the govern-ment took over 30 percent of Alstom capital, it would cover half of the needed sum. Alstom employs about 110,000 people around the world, including 75,000 in Europe.
This story has been viewed 1190 times.