Fri, Mar 20, 2009 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ECONOMY

  Shrinking trade crimps Asia

  The global economy may shrink for the first time in at least 60 years this year, hurting world trade and crimping Asian growth, Credit Suisse Group AG said. The world economy may contract 0.3 percent this year, compared with an estimate last month of 0.7 percent growth, Credit Suisse economists Neal Soss and Henry Mo said in a report dated on Wednesday. “The severe and synchronized global recession has led to a freezing of trade,” the Zurich-based bank said. That will hurt Asian exporters including Japan, where GDP may contract 5.2 percent this year, it said. Growth in the rest of Asia may slow to 4.4 percent, it forecast. A recovery in global growth next year would depend on monetary, credit and fiscal policies in the US, Europe and elsewhere, Credit Suisse said. Government efforts to stimulate their economies may help world GDP growth rebound to 3.7 percent next year, the bank said.

  ■FRAUD

  Madoff accountant arrested

  Bernard Madoff’s longtime accountant was arrested on fraud charges on Wednesday as US authorities blamed him for failing to make the most basic auditing checks that would have exposed an epic fraud that cost investors billions of dollars. David Friehling is the first person to be arrested in the scandal since Madoff turned himself in, and his prosecution signals that the government is intent on bringing Madoff’s associates to justice as they try to figure out who helped him carry out the fraud. Prosecutors say the 49-year-old Friehling essentially rubber-stamped Madoff’s books for 17 years, serving as Madoff’s auditor from 1991 through last year. Authorities said that if Friehling had done his job, Madoff’s financial statements would have shown his company was insolvent.

  ■ENTERTAINMENT

  Offer made for USJ Co

  A Goldman Sachs Group Inc-led group offered ¥111.2 billion (US$1.2 billion) to take over USJ Co, the operator of the Universal Studios Japan theme park that’s losing customers as the economy contracts. Goldman, which aims to boost its stake in Osaka-based USJ to 61.2 percent, and investors including MBK Partners bid ¥50,000 a share, they said in a statement yesterday. That’s 23 percent more than the stock’s closing price on Wednesday in Tokyo. New York-based Goldman, the world’s biggest and most profitable securities firm until it converted to a bank holding company, invested ¥20 billion in Universal Studios Japan in 2005. “The key to success of the bid depends on whether Osaka city, a major shareholder, accepts the bid,” said Hirotoshi Murakami, a senior analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co in Tokyo.

  ■AVIATION

  BAA must sell airports

  BAA Ltd, the owner of the UK’s five busiest airports, faces being broken up after the country’s top antitrust regulator ruled that the company must sell two hubs serving London and one in Scotland. The Competition Commission ordered BAA, a unit of Spanish builder Grupo Ferrovial SA, to dispose of London’s Gatwick and Stansted airports and terminals in either Edinburgh or Glasgow. All three disposals must be made within two years, the watchdog said today in a Regulatory News Service statement.

  ■FINLAND

  Two-year recession forecast

  The economy is likely to be in recession for at least two years, shrinking 4 percent this year and 1.1 percent next year, Espoo-based Tapiola Bank forecast yesterday.
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