Mon, Dec 07, 2015 page15

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  HOMEWARES

  Kitchen retailer dies at 100

  Chuck Williams, the founder of the Williams-Sonoma empire, who ushered in an era of aspirational culinary retailing, has died. He was 100. The home goods retailer said Williams died peacefully of natural causes on Saturday. A two-week trip to Paris in 1953 inspired him to open his first Williams-Sonoma store in Sonoma, California, three years later. He filled the shop off Sonoma’s town square with pots and pans, white porcelain ovenware, country earthenware and other French cooking tools. Williams’ first store was such an enormous success that in 1958, he relocated to a 278m2 store in San Francisco, next to the city’s bustling Union Square shopping district.

  JAPAN

  Tax exemption mulled

  The goverment is considering a property tax exemption for small and medium-sized businesses that increase capital expenditure, Economy Minister Akira Amari said in an NHK broadcast yesterday. “I want to achieve something that has never been attempted before,” he said. The plan is to be incorporated into broader tax reforms in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, Amari said on NHK. GDP in the quarter ended Sept. 30 probably remained flat, compared with an earlier prediction of a 0.8 percent decline, Amari said. GDP is expected to increase in the following quarters, the minister said.

  AUSTRALIA

  Victoria expects 700 jobs

  Victoria state expects 700 new jobs, including cybersecurity positions, to be created through the roll-out of the national broadband network. An operations center is being established in Melbourne to be “the first line of defense” against cyber threats to the network, the government announced yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Other jobs would be in technical support and administration, engineering and customer support, according to the statement.

  AUSTRALIA

  Luye to buy Healthe Care

  Luye Group Ltd agreed to buy Healthe Care Australia Pty, the nation’s third-largest private hospital operator for A$938 million (US$688 million) in a deal that is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year, as the Chinese company hunts for expansion opportunities in the Asia-Pacific. Luye is acquiring Healthe Care from private equity firm Archer Capital Pty and gaining a company that operates 17 hospitals with more than 1,800 beds across Australia, the companies said in a joint statement yesterday. Luye has a significant stake in Hong Kong-listed drugmaker Luye Pharma Group Ltd, according to the statement. The deal puts Luye in a position to take advantage of opportunities resulting from the recently signed free-trade agreement with China.

  RUSSIA

  Fund eyes Egypt, Cuba

  Direct Investment Fund, which partners with global investors on equity deals at home, said it is interested in investing in countries where it sees strong potential for growth such as Egypt and Cuba. Such deals would mark a shift in strategy for the fund, which was set up in 2011 to secure co-investment in Russian transactions to stimulate inflows into the country. The fund has started to invest US$10 billion pledged by Saudi Arabia this year, while Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund last month said it would double the amount it’s pledged to the fund to US$1 billion. The fund has about 25 investments and recently sold stakes in companies including telecommunications provider Rostelecom PJSC.
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