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World Business Quick Take

■ Monopolies
Competition law revised
The Japanese parliament approved a revision to the Antimonopoly Act yesterday aimed at imposing stiffer penalties for price cartels, bid-rigging and other unfair practices, a parliamentary official said. The revised law, which will take effect next January, will increase the penalty on large manufacturers to 10 percent of sales from the current 6 percent, while large retailers will be fined 3 percent of sales rather than 2 percent, he said. Under the amended law, penalties will be reduced or even removed for a maximum three companies in each antitrust case if they voluntarily report their wrongdoing, the official said. The revision, the second major change to the law, was made amid frequent bid-rigging in public projects.

■ Aviation
Singapore rivals cut prices
Two of Singapore's low-cost carriers upped the ante in the region's cutthroat budget airline market yesterday, with Valuair announcing its second China destination and Tiger Airways slashing prices to US$6. Valuair said in a statement it would begin flying to Xiamen from Monday, its second destination in China after opening a route to Chengdu earlier this week. Tiger Airways -- an offshoot of Singapore Airlines -- said it would offer one-way tickets to any of its 10 destinations for S$9.98 (US$6) from today until the end of June, the peak school holiday travel season. Current fares range up to about 10 times higher. Observers say both airlines are trying to take advantage of the upcoming summer holidays and Singaporeans' affinity for travel overseas, especially during school breaks.

■ Banking
DoCoMo buys card firm
Japan's top mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo will buy a stake of up to 33.4 percent in Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co to enter the credit card business, a report said yesterday. DoCoMo will purchase the stake from Japan's third ranked bank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, which onws Sumitomo Mitsui Card, Japan's second-largest credit card firm, the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The deal could cost DoCoMo some ¥100 billion (US$935 million) and the companies aim to reach an agreement by the end of this month, it said. The move underlines DoCoMo's efforts to build a new growth business as it faces severe competition from Japan's number two telecoms operator KDDI amid a slowdown in the mobile phone market, the daily said.

■ Retail
Benetton ups China stores
Italian clothing retailer Benetton is to open 40 shops in China this year and a total of 200 by 2008, the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported yesterday, quoting the company's vice president Alessandro Benetton. The newspaper said that the Shanghai Foreign Economic and Trade Commission had granted Benetton a commercial licence to open and run the shops itself, without recourse to intermediaries or joint ventures. The paper quoted Alessandro Benetton as saying: "We have been present in China since 1991. We encountered problems but we had the strength to persist. This is a key factor for a foreign investor in China." Early last month Benetton said that it intended to develop in China and in India through local retail distribution agreements and to increase the amount of its production moved to Asia.

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