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World Business Quick Take

■ Aviation
AirAsia eyes ringgIt market
Low-cost carrier AirAsia may finance the purchase of 27 Airbus aircraft in the local market, in a billion-dollar deal that would be a major boost for the Malaysian finance sector, officials and analysts said. "We will go to the market by year-end to finance some of the aircraft which will be delivered to us post-2007," AirAsia's group deputy chief executive, Kamarudin Meranum said. "I do not discount the possibility we may do a ringgit-denominated financing for some of the aircraft which are yet to be financed in view of the strength of the ringgit and vis a vis the appreciation of the US interest rate." Officials familiar with the ringgit financing option say the cost of the 27 A320 aircraft could be about US$1 billion dollars and that the central bank was pushing for a ringgit financing as the market was "flush with liquidity." Kamarudin said AirAsia had received "favorable indication from local bankers" to participate in the funding exercise.

■ Retail
MUJI targets US market
Japan's household goods and clothing label MUJI is planning to expand into the US market in a bid to establish itself as a global brand, reports said yesterday. Ryohiin Keikaku Co, which sells the MUJI brand of products including stationery, furniture and food product lines, plans to open its first US store in New York early next year, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The company then hopes to launch a nationwide network of stores, the newspaper said, without citing its sources. MUJI, known for its simple, contemporary design, already has some 300 stores in Japan and 51 stores in Europe and Asia.

■ Software
Pune center planned
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India's biggest software maker, will open a new center near Mumbai, as cost pressures in the US and Europe boost demand for the company's services. Tata Consultancy has signed an initial agreement to buy land in Pune city from a unit of the administration of Maharashtra to build the center employing 5,000 people, the Mumbai-based company said in an e-mailed statement on Saturday. Investments in the center will be as much as 5 billion rupees (US$109 million) and the company may later double the workforce at the site, which is located near Mumbai. "Pune is emerging as a promising information technology hub for companies" chief executive officer S. Ramadorai was cited as saying in the statement. The center, besides a team of software writers, will also employ research and engineering specialists.

■ Tires
Michelin CEO to stand alone
Michel Rollier, the new head of Michelin, said on Saturday that he alone would run the world's leading tire maker following the death of managing partner Edouard Michelin. The question of naming a co-director "is not on the agenda," Rollier told a news conference. "Michelin has a boss. I am the boss." Rollier took the helm of the company, based in Clermont-Ferrand, France, following the death May 26 of Edouard Michelin in a boating accident off the coast of Brittany. Rollier, 62, was co-director with Michelin. However, in his first statement as director, he said he would be accompanied by no one in running the firm, which employees 130,000 people around the world.
The company is famed for its restaurant guides, maps, inventing radial tires, and for its Michelin Man logo.

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