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World Business Quick Take

■TRADE

Geithner voices optimism

Efforts by the US and China to revive the global economy are starting to pay off, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said yesterday. Geithner made his comments at a meeting with President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) wrapping up two days of talks in Beijing. “We’ve already demonstrated the capacity of our two countries to work together on the global stage, to lay a foundation for economic recovery, and I think partly because of the strength of the actions put in place by your government and by [US] President [Barack] Obama we’re starting to see some early signs of stabilization and recovery in the global economy,” Geithner told Hu.



■JAPAN

Economy has hit bottom

The Asian giant’s economy likely bottomed out in the first quarter of this year, but is unlikely to recover until late this year or early next year, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said yesterday. “I think that the economy has hit bottom” in the first quarter until March, he told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. “The economy will maintain this upward trend during and after the April-to-June quarter, and probably return to normal ... around the end of this year or by spring next year.” The country posted its worst growth figure during the January-to-March quarter as GDP shrunk by an annualized 15.2 percent.



■DEFENSE

Saab announces layoffs

Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab AB yesterday said it would lay off 370 office staff at its Saab Bofors Dynamics unit in Sweden. The company said staff in the central Swedish cities of Karlskoga, Eskilstuna and Linkoping, as well as in southwestern Goteborg would be affected by the layoffs. The redundancies will be implemented between this year and 2011 and are part of a long-term restructuring process, initiated as a result of declining orders from the Swedish armed forces, Saab said.



■COMPUTERS

EMC eyes Data Domain

US computer storage giant EMC Corp offered US$1.8 billion on Monday for Data Domain in a bid to counter a rival offer for the data storage company from NetApp. EMC, in a statement, said it was prepared to offer US$30 per share in cash for Data Domain, which NetApp offered to buy on May 20 for US$1.5 billion, or US$25 per share in a cash and stock deal. “EMC’s all-cash proposal is superior to the proposed NetApp transaction providing Data Domain stockholders greater value and certainty,” EMC said. “EMC’s all-cash offer represents a 20 percent premium to the cash and stock offer made by NetApp,” it said.



■AVIATION

Ryanair announces losses

Leading budget airline Ryanair reported its first annual pre-tax loss yesterday, saying it had gone into the red by 169 million euros (US$239 million) last year following a fuel bill increase of 59 percent. The loss run up by the end of March compared with a profit of 481 million euros in the previous year and came after Ryanair faced record oil prices and a hefty writedown on the value of its investment in rival Irish carrier Aer Lingus. The company said it had written down the value of its 29.8 percent stake in Aer Lingus by a further 222 million euros, after Aer Lingus’ share price fell.
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