World Business Quick Take

■ Clothing
Levi's calls in help
Troubled jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co replaced its chief financial officer and sought help from a turnaround firm with a history of repairing destitute companies. Without providing a reason for the change, Levi's said Monday that its CFO of the past five years, Bill Chiasson, had left the company. At the same time, Levi's hired Alvarez & Marsal, a New York-based consultant that has counseled dozens of struggling companies during the past 20 years. Levi's named Jim Fogarty, a managing director for Alvarez & Marsal, as its interim CFO. The shake-up comes with San Francisco-based Levi's mired in a seven-year sales slump as it battles to improve its tarnished credit rating and deal with questions about its accounting practices.

■ Credit Cards
Record loss registered
The ratio of overdue loans at South Korea's eight credit-card firms hit an all-time high of 11.2 percent at the end of September, financial regulators said yesterday. The eight companies posted a net loss of 1.55 trillion won (US$1.29 billion) in the three months to September, compared with a net loss of 1.64 trillion won in the previous quarter, the Financial Supervisory Service said. Their delinquency ratio, covering bills overdue more than one month, rose to 11.2 percent from 9.4 percent over the three months, it said. Woori Card had the the highest delinquency rate at 26.42 percent. "A steady rise in bad loan provisions and a steep decline in their major income source of cash loans resulted in a huge net loss this year," the FSS said in a statement.

■ Flat panels
Fuji to boost investment
Japan's Fuji Photo Film Co said yesterday it plans to spend ?110 billion (US$1.01 billion) over the next four years on its business that produces materials used in flat-panel displays. The planned outlay is double the estimated ?55 billion (US$505 million) it will have spent on the business in the three years up to March of next year. Japan's leading photo film maker has shifted its focus to production of film used in products such a flat-screen televisions and computers, and liquid crystal display panels. Demand for those products has been booming, whereas growth in the company's traditional photo film business has flagged due to the popularity of digital cameras. Much of the investment will go toward increasing production capacity of materials used in LCD panels, the company said.

■ United States
More signs of recovery
A pair of upbeat reports reinforced rising optimism about the US' economic recovery: the manufacturing sector expanded in November for a fifth consecutive month and at its fastest rate in nearly two decades, while October construction spending was the best month on record. The Institute for Supply Management reported that its manufacturing index soared last month to its fastest clip since December 1983. The index registered at 62.8, a large increase from the October reading of 57 and well above analysts' expectations of 58.1. An index reading above 50 indicates expansion; one below 50 indicates that manufacturing activity is contracting. Also on Monday, the Commerce Department reported that the total value of building projects under way came in at a seasonally adjusted US$922 billion in October, a 0.9 percent increase from the previous month.