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World Business Quick Take

■ POVERTY

Ban appoints Douste-Blazy

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed former French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on Tuesday to look for innovative ways to finance UN goals to fight poverty. The goals include cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring an elementary school education for all children, and halting and reversing the AIDS pandemic, all by 2015. He will serve as Ban's special adviser on innovative financing for development, with the rank of undersecretary-general and a salary of US$1 a year. UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe, who announced the appointment, said aid from governments was noy enought to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals.



■ AUTOMOBILES

Smart car makes a splash

Daimler AG's Smart car has made a big splash in the US, with sales off to a speedy start in its first month on the market, distributor Penske Auto Group said on Tuesday. "We're really excited about the smart business," Roger Penske said. "We think it's the right car at the right time." Smart USA expects to sell between 20,000 and 25,000 of the fuel-sipping two seaters this year and Penske said he was pressing Daimler to ship more vehicles. The Smart is the first French built car sold in the US in more than 20 years.



■ BANKING

A&L profit down

British bank Alliance & Leicester's (A&L) profit last year tumbled 30 percent as it suffered a £185 million (US$360.4 million) writedown on its exposure to risky assets. A&L, Britain's seventh-biggest listed bank, reported a pretax profit of £399 million yesterday, down from £569 million in 2006 and below an average forecast of £416 million from 12 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. The bank said underlying core operating profit rose 3 percent from 2006 to £602 million. It raised its full-year dividend by 2.2 percent to 55.3 pence per share, below an average forecast of 56.2 pence.



■ RETAIL

Carrefour Malaysia to invest

Carrefour Malaysia is planning to invest some US$373 million over the next three years to double the number of its hypermarkets here to 26, a report said yesterday. The New Straits Times said the expansion, including the construction of three more outlets this year, would create 4,200 jobs. "We expect to spend not less than 1.2 billion ringgit [US$373 million] over the next three years for openings," Carrefour customer operations and marketing director Sivakumar Haridas told the daily. "Prior to 2006, we only had eight stores. Between 2006 and January 2008 we have already added five stores," he said.



■ INVESTMENT

Japanese stock alluring

The chief operating officer of Dubai International Capital said it is time to buy sluggish Japanese stocks, a news report said yesterday. "It is a good investment opportunity," Anand Krishnan was quoted as saying by the Nikkei Shimbun. The investment company, owned by the ruler of the booming Persian Gulf city-state, has been keen on overseas investment opportunities. The fund said in November it has acquired a stake in Sony Corp, without specifying ownership percentage. Krishnan said that the fund is seeking out Japanese shares besides Sony, the Nikkei said. Krishnan said he was interested in companies with significant market shares in emerging markets.
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