Wed, Oct 22, 2008 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ AVIATION

  Airport operators swap shares

  The state-owned company that runs Paris’ airports and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport operator will take stakes in each other’s companies in a deal meant to make them more competitive, the French Finance Ministry said yesterday. In a statement, the ministry said the boards of both companies had approved an “industrial partnership project.” The French government will cede 8 percent of its majority stake in Aeroports de Paris (AdP) to Schiphol Group for 67 euros (US$89.94) per share, or about 530 million euros, the statement said. AdP will then obtain 8 percent of Schiphol’s capital for about 370 million euros. The French government will retain 60 percent of AdP’s capital after the deal and intends to remain the chief stakeholder, the ministry said.

  ■ AUTOMOBILES

  Nissan cuts production

  Nissan Motor Co said yesterday it would cut Japanese production of large and luxury cars meant for export to the US as demand slows in the world’s largest economy. Nissan will reduce production of its Infinity brand luxury cars and its Murano and Rogue sports utility vehicles by a total of 65,000 units between next month and March. The cuts would reduce Nissan’s total output in Japan by 4.7 percent from the 1.388 million vehicles it initially planned to produce in the year through March. Nissan is also considering cutting jobs for some of its 2,000 temporary workers at the plants, the company said.

  ■ SAFETY

  Chinese cribs recalled

  China, embroiled in a tainted milk scandal that has made thousand of babies sick, said it took product safety very seriously, especially where children were concerned, after a new report about faulty Chinese-made cribs. New York-based Delta Enterprises recalled on Monday almost 1.6 million cribs made in China, Indonesia and Taiwan after it said two babies died. It did not give details. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said he had no information on the cribs but urged consumers and producers to report faulty products. The crib recall is one of the largest in US history and follows another recall of 2,000 cribs, also made in China, issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday.

  ■ RATINGS

  South Korea retains A+

  Fitch Ratings affirmed South Korea’s credit rating, saying the US$130 billion financial-rescue package announced this week was “sufficiently focused and affordable.” Fitch kept its A+ rating, the fifth-highest of 10 investment grades, on South Korea’s foreign currency debt. The government on Sunday pledged to guarantee US$100 billion in banks’ foreign-currency debt and said it would provide US$30 billion in US dollars to banks. The measures “are sufficiently focused and affordable to be consistent with [South] Korea’s current sovereign ratings,” Fitch said in a statement yesterday.

  ■ ELECTRONICS

  CE sales growth halves

  Consumer electronics sales are expected to grow 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter, half the growth rate for the holiday season last year, a trade industry group said on Monday. The Consumer Electonics Association (CEA) said that while consumers were expecting to spend nearly US$200 less this holiday season than last year, they plan to spend more on consumer electronics. The CEA study found that 28 percent of the total holiday budget was being allocated for consumer electronics purchases, an increase of 6 percent from last year.
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