World Business Quick Take

■ Auto Industry
Hyundai plans new venture
Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's largest carmaker, plans to set up an auto-parts venture with Siemens AG, Yonhap News reported, citing a company official it didn't name. The venture will be formed in mid-July, the report said. Hyundai Motor and Siemens will initially produce electronic control systems for cars, the report said. The venture will be expanded to include multimedia components, such as navigation equipment, Yonhap News said.

■ Oil business
Shell wants von Pierer
Siemens AG's former chief executive and current supervisory board head Heinrich von Pierer is a leading candidate to take over as chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the Sunday Telegraph said, citing no one. Von Pierer, 64, is "rated by many as the most influential European business leader of the past decade" and his appointment would be "welcomed by investors," the Telegraph said. The oil company has hired recruiting company Egon Zehnder to find a new chairman, the newspaper said.

■ Aviation
Dragonair pampers less
Hong Kong airline Dragonair has scaled back its in-flight service after at least 100 flight attendants called in sick in recent days to protest their workload. Cabin crew have been ordered not to serve pre-meal drinks, wet towels and second helpings of coffee or tea on flights that are inadequately staffed until the end of September, the South China Morning Post reported. They also won't be required to offer duty-free shopping, the report said. The flight attendants who called in sick on Friday and Saturday are upset about their low pay and increased working hours, according to the Post.

■ Retail
Daiei to sell properties
Struggling Japanese retailer Daiei will sell over 100 properties in a bid to halve its debt to about ?500 billion (US$4.5 billion) by early next year. Through the sell-off, Daiei expects to secure ?20 billion and hopes to speed up its debt-reduction efforts and improve its financial base, the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said yesterday. The total amount of Daiei's interest-bearing debt stood at ?1.03 trillion at the end of February. In December last year, the retailer said it would close 53 money-losing outlets. The retailer is currently undergoing business rehabilitation under the government-backed corporate bailout body, Industrial Revitalization Corp of Japan.

■ Semiconductors
Matsushita cuts back
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, the world's biggest consumer-electronics maker, is offering early retirement to some of its 15,000 semiconductor-division employees to cut costs and raise profitability, a spokesman said. Matsushita, Japan's fifth-biggest chipmaker, will take requests until mid-July for early retirement from employees in Japan with the company for at least 10 years, said Akira Kadota, a spokesman in Tokyo, confirming an earlier report in the Nihon Keizai newspaper. The Osaka-based company expects to eliminate about 1,000 employees, or 6 percent of the chip-business jobs, the Nikkei reported. Kadota said the numbers are "speculative."