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World Business Quick Take

■ Stock Market
Mastercard readies for IPO
MasterCard Inc on Monday said that more than 90 percent of shareholder votes were cast in favor of the company's new ownership and governance structure, paving the way for the company's initial public offering. Purchase-based Mastercard plans to raise about US$2.45 billion in an IPO early next year, broadening its ownership beyond the current 1,400 financial institutions. The new structure also includes the formation of a charitable foundation, the MasterCard Foundation, which will hold 10 percent of the company's shares.

■ Mining
Gold soars above US$500
The price of gold exceeded US$500 an ounce for the first time in 18 years in trading on Asian markets yesterday amid fears about rising inflation, dealers said. They said further increases in the gold price, traditionally seen as a safe haven in times of rising inflation, were expected although there may be some volatility in the short term. Gold was fetching US$500.5 an ounce, its highest level since 1987. "It feels like it is going to correct at one stage but I don't think it will get below US$475 an ounce as the trend is up," Tricom senior client advisor Ashok Sekar said. London-based Numis Corp said inflation fears were driving the metal higher, particularly after recent interest rate hikes in the US.

■ Drugs
Cheerleaders sell pills
US drug manufacturers facing increasingly tough competition to market their wares to doctors have found a new, all-American weapon: cheerleaders. So many young college graduates have traded their pom-poms for a saleswoman's briefcase that a company has been set up in Memphis, Tennessee, to help corporations talent-scout cheerleaders around the country. Gregory Webb, the founder and president of Spirited Sales Leaders, says he is aware of several hundred former cheerleaders who have been hired by pharmaceutical companies as saleswomen. He rejected suggestions that drug corporations were simply seeking to exploit cheerleaders' wholesome good looks in the hope of luring mostly male doctors into prescribing their products. "Today's cheerleader is not a 1950s cheerleader. These are true campus leaders," Webb said.

■ Crime
Fraud rife in UK firms
More than half of UK companies suffered from fraud in the past two years, losing an average of ?1 million (US$1.7 million) each, and the most common method of detecting it was by accident, a report yesterday showed. Around 55 percent of British firms reported being hit by economic crime or fraud, compared with an average of 45 percent of businesses worldwide, a survey by auditor PriceWaterhouseCooper found. Despite the high rate of economic crime, around 75 percent of companies did not think it likely that they would suffer fraud over the next five years, while 74 percent said they were satisfied with their internal controls, even though the most common method of detecting fraud in the UK was by accident. Internal audit departments uncovered 24 percent of fraud cases. The report showed that half the incidents of fraud were perpetrated by a company's employees and the average UK fraudster was male, between the ages of 31 and 40 and who held a position in middle management or below.

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