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World Business Quick Take

■Real Estate
Free Lexus with purchase
A developer is throwing in a free Lexus in a bid to entice condominium buyers amid Singapore's sluggish property market, the firm said yesterday. City Developments' offer of a new IS200 Lexus, worth S$133,888 (US$61,000), is for the 158m2 three-bedroom units of The Trevose. Buyers can negotiate for a direct price discount instead of the Lexus or a furniture voucher if they want. For the other 17 units, CityDev will pay up to S$100,000 (US$56,000) to furnish the apartments. Reflecting the slump in the property market here, the average price of the units is currently S$4,816 (US$2,634) per square meter, down from S$6,547 when the complex was first launched in mid-2000.

■ Finance
ABN Amro rebuilds team
ABN Amro Holding NV, the largest Dutch financial services company, hired six people to boost its equity team in Asia, after a slump in stock markets the past two years reduced business and forced employee cuts. Alastair Barr, promoted in March to head the bank's equities business in Asia as well as his existing role running Australia and New Zealand, fired 55 or about a fifth of the equity employees in the region in the past six months. Barr is now rebuilding his own team, and has hired or transferred 29 employees to the region. That includes three analysts in India announced today and 10 new recruits in Taiwan last month. "We've had some tough times and we've contracted along with every other broker," said Barr. "Now we're seeing an upturn we're taking the opportunity to hire again."

■ Macroeconomics
Japan may be recovering
Japan's index of leading economic indicators was above 50 percent for a third month in July, reinforcing investor expectations that the world's second-biggest economy is recovering. The index, which measures job offers, consumer confidence and other indicators of future activity, rose to 77.8 percent from 75 percent in June, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo. A reading above 50 percent signals an expansion in three to six months. The coincident index, which tracks factory production, power consumption by large manufacturers and department store sales to measure current economic performance, was also at 77.8 percent, compared with 63.6 percent in June, yesterday's report showed. Industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent in July from June because of growing demand in the US.

■ Labor
Verizon settles with workers
Verizon Communications Inc, the biggest US local-telephone company, reached contract agreements with two unions representing 78,000 employees in northeastern US states, ending 12 weeks of negotiations. The New York-based company agreed to an 8 percent wage increase over the life of the five-year contract and left intact restrictions on its ability to cut and move jobs, it said in a statement. In exchange, Verizon won concessions that will reduce its healthcare costs by US$500 million. In talks that began in mid-June, Verizon had sought to lower healthcare expenses and gain more freedom to transfer jobs as it tries to cope with a decline in demand for local calling. With the help of a federal mediator, it averted a strike that would have hampered service and trimmed revenue in 13 states and the nation's capital.

Agencies
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