田崎真珠、社員３分の１を削減へ 在庫も値引き販売

田崎真珠、社員３分の１を削減へ　在庫も値引き販売

2008年12月8日23時40分

　真珠の生産、販売大手の田崎真珠（神戸市）は８日、社員の３分の１にあたる約４５０人の人員削減を目標に、希望退職を募ると発表した。１月に欧米のファッション会社から新社長や執行役員を迎えて新体制を敷くが、飯田隆也社長は「今後の経営を考えて適正な人員に絞る」としている。

　募集の対象は約１２００人の社員全員。また、真珠や宝石などの在庫を値引き価格で販売するなどし、０８年１０月期連結決算の営業損益の予想を１０億円の黒字から、２５億４千万円の赤字に下方修正した。在庫の時価評価を進め、６５億円の評価損を計上。当期損失の予想も２８億５千万円から、１５９億円に修正した。営業赤字は８５年の上場以来、初めてという。

　飯田社長は「過剰在庫に思い切って処理し、負の遺産の解消にめどを付けた」と語った。来春にも中期経営計画を策定する方針で、卸売りよりも小売り部門を強化し、ブランドの再構築を図るという。

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豊田市ピンチ　トヨタ不振で法人市民税９割減収へ

2008年12月8日23時1分

　愛知県豊田市の鈴木公平市長は８日、開会中の市議会本会議で、０９年度当初予算の法人市民税について、今年度当初（４４２億円）の９割に当たる４００億円の減収になるとの見通しを示した。トヨタ自動車の業績悪化などで、今年度に納入された市民税から、取り過ぎた分を０９年度に返す「還付金」についても、「１５０億円程度を予想せざるを得ない」と答弁。同市は９月、来年度一般会計当初予算を１６００億円規模で編成する方針を示していたが、大幅な見直しが確実な状況だ。

　法人市民税は、同市の税収の中核。今年度当初比９割減の予想を示したのは過去に例がない。市はこれまで、０９年度の税収について、「市税全体で２００億円以上は減る」などと説明していた。

　還付金については、０７年度の納税分から返還する額が、０８年度は個人と企業合わせて６億６千万円だが、０９年度はけた違いの１５０億円を予想。市財政をさらに圧迫する。

　鈴木市長はこの日の市議会で、「このような財政上の急変は、私の知りうる限り、未曽有の事態。全庁をあげて対処しなければならない」と表明。市内部では、単年度で整備予定だった道路を複数年にまたがる事業に組み替えたり、ハコモノの着工時期を後年度にずらしたりする方法が検討されている。

　愛知県内ではこのほか、岡崎市と豊橋市が同日、法人市民税が今年度当初に比べてそれぞれ３０億円程度、減るとの見通しを明らかにした。

　同県内には自動車関連の産業に税収を頼る自治体が多く、今後も同様の影響が広がるとみられる。

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Rouble exodus hits Russia credit rating

By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: December 8 2008 19:17 | Last updated: December 8 2008 19:17

Russia on Monday became the first G8 country since the start of the financial crisis to have its credit rating downgraded after Standard and Poor’s took fright at the recent exodus from the rouble and sharp drop in oil prices.

S&P said it had lowered Russia's foreign currency credit rating by one notch from BBB+ to BBB because of the “rapid depletion” of the country’s foreign exchange reserves and the “difficulty of meeting the country’s external financing needs”. It said the outlook for the rating was negative.

Russia’s reserves have fallen by $128bn since August to $455bn, as the country battles the capital flight that began following the war with Georgia and escalated as the oil price fell and the global crisis worsened.

S&P said Russia could be forced to spend all $200bn now parked in its two sovereign wealth funds on recapitalising the banking system and covering fiscal deficits in 2009 and 2010.

The agency expects Russia to run a current account deficit next year of 2.6 per cent of gross domestic product due to the oil price fall, putting further pressure on the balance of payments.

“There are a lot of layers of concern,” said Frank Gill, primary credit analyst at Standard and Poor’s. “There are macroeconomic and political risks . . . and Russia has not operated a current account deficit since 1997 and that was less than 1 per cent of GDP.”

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, has staked his political credibility on avoiding a sharp rouble depreciation.

The thought of devaluation raises the spectre of the 1998 rouble crash that wiped out Russians’ savings, although economists say any devaluation this time would be far less severe.

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Kuwait suffers FDI deficit

By Robin Wigglesworth in Abu Dhabi

Published: December 8 2008 17:29 | Last updated: December 8 2008 17:29

As Kuwait veers between political crisis and paralysis, some things seem set to remain constant, observers say: a dearth of reforms and investment, and stultifying bureaucracy.
The Kuwaiti cabinet resigned last month

In spite of its oil wealth and strategic position at the top of the Gulf, Kuwait last year attracted only $123m in foreign direct investment, according to the United Nations’ 2008 World Investment Report, the lowest of all Middle East and north African countries except for the Palestinian territories. Even Yemen attracted almost four times as much investment. Qatar, the second least popular destination for foreign capital in the six states of the petroleum-rich Gulf Co-operation Council, received 10 times more FDI than Kuwait.

This is partially because Kuwait’s own wealth – derived from its production of 2.6m barrels of oil a day – makes foreign capital less necessary for development. However, experts say that the main reason is an inhospitable business environment, particularly for international companies.

“There is virtually no private sector, the government does everything,” says a former Kuwaiti minister who feels the country needs “smart capital” from abroad to invigorate the economy.

The petroleum industry is barred to foreigners, who also cannot own land. Companies must generally be majority-owned by locals and, unlike the free zones thriving elsewhere in the region, the Kuwait zones are “an embarrassment”, one lawyer says.

According to the UN report, only 31 affiliates of foreign companies are based in Kuwait, the same number as in Iran, an international pariah under UN sanctions because of its nuclear activities.

To be fair, Kuwait has initiated some reforms, such as cutting the corporate tax rate from 55 per cent to 15 per cent earlier this year, and has tried to increase access to land for development. But investors and experts say the changes have been too few to keep up with the rest of the Gulf.

Project Kuwait, an upstream development initiative to open up northern oilfields to international companies and ease pressure on ageing structures elsewhere, was first launched in 1997. But little has come of the scheme because of parliamentary wrangling.

More recently, Kuwait announced in a blaze of publicity that it would build a new $85bn city – Madinat Al Hareer, or City of Silk – to create jobs and provide housing, but that too has hit snags. Experts now question whether it will ever happen.

The difficulty of obtaining land is the biggest impediment to investment in Kuwait. Even Kuwaitis often face years of bureaucracy to acquire areas for housing, schools or factories, even though the country reportedly only uses less than 4 per cent of its area.

“It’s a handicap for an expanding economy, and for making the country competitive,” says Bassam Al-Othman, head of real estate at Markaz, a Kuwaiti investment company. “It is part of Kuwait’s stagnating position, and makes it a less desirable place to invest.”

Experts say the failure to make more land available is because the majority of it is held under concession by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, the state oil company.

Still, the situation baffles many Kuwaitis, who have seen other Gulf countries open up their real estate sectors to enjoy rising property prices in recent years.

“If you go to eastern Saudi Arabia, you can see people building around oil infrastructure,” says Mr Al-Othman. “I can’t believe that you cannot find enough land to give to the public sector. I don’t get it. Anything to do with leisure and residential would sell like hot cakes.”

Thus, even Kuwaiti investment companies avoid investing in their domestic market, and some industrial groups have moved parts of their operations abroad.

Kuwait dropped three places to 52nd in the World Bank’s Doing Business report for 2009, among the lowest in the Gulf, in spite of levying no income taxes and a low corporate tax rate. Meanwhile, neighbouring Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are ranked as the 16th and 18th best places to do business in the world.

Kuwaitis have a reputation as the Gulf’s sharpest capitalists, and its country’s merchant families are among the world’s richest, and areas where the private sector has been allowed to operate generally thrive. Yet the sense of relative decline is palpable.

Kuwaitis expect the government’s mass resignation last month to head off a parliamentary grilling of the prime minister will change little. After some prevarication, the emir accepted the government’s resignation but asked the same prime minister to form a new government early next year.

The national assembly is likely to continue to demand to interrogate the premier when it reconvenes, and some say the eventual result may still be Kuwait’s second election in 12 months and third in three years.

Says a leading member of parliament: “We are the worst at everything in the region, except democracy.”

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Tribune Company files for bankruptcy

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Kenneth Li and Julie MacIntosh in New York

Published: December 8 2008 20:19 | Last updated: December 8 2008 20:19

The Tribune Company on Monday became the largest casualty of the crisis in US newspapers, filing for bankruptcy protection in a blow to Sam Zell, whose $8.2bn leveraged buy-out closed only a year ago.

Mr Zell, a Chicago property tycoon whose history of turning around distressed assets earned him the nickname of “grave dancer”, had hoped to forge a new model for newspapers but was overwhelmed by an accelerating decline in print advertising revenue.

The filing threatens some of the largest US metropolitan newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun, as well as more than 20 television stations. It excludes the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which the company is still trying to sell.

In a Delaware bankruptcy court filing, Tribune reported assets of $7.6bn and debts of $13bn, suggesting that the employee share ownership plan that backed the buy-out will see its equity wiped out. The scheme’s participation allowed Mr Zell to invest just $315m in the deal.

JPMorgan Chase is the agent for holders of Tribune’s $8.6bn of senior debt, and has about $1.5bn of its own exposure. Merrill Lynch is agent for holders of the $1.6bn bridge loan facility.

Other major creditors include Deutsche Bank, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, suppliers of newsprint and television programming and former executives such as Mark Willes, who sold Times Mirror to Tribune in 2000.

The exclusion of the Chicago Cubs comes as Tribune remains in talks with three groups about a sale that could bring in much needed cash before a $512m debt payment comes due in June.

Mr Zell had hoped to present a buyer to Major League Baseball’s commissioner by the end of the year, but talks are not now expected to conclude until the first quarter of 2009.

Alan Mutter, a veteran media executive and media analyst in San Francisco, said Mr Zell had a chance to sell the Cubs for “a bodacious amount of money, at around $800m” this summer. By holding out for $1bn, Tribune may have missed that chance.

“Tribune’s filing, per se, doesn’t trigger other filings (from other publishers), but the circumstances here are far from unique,” he said.

Analysts predicted Tribune would seek further layoffs or close one or more titles to try to cut costs.

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住金物産、鶏肉加工の中国委託工場を削減　タイに移管

　住金物産は輸入加工食品のアジアでの生産委託体制を見直す。中国で空揚げなど鶏肉加工品の委託工場を約70カ所から30以下に絞り込み、代わりにタイの契約工場への委託分を増やした。同社は日本に輸入される鶏肉加工品の10―15％を取り扱う。消費者の食の安全への関心が高まるなか、衛生管理などで独自基準を設け委託先の監督を強化する。

　第1弾として中国でフライドチキンや空揚げなど鶏肉加工品を生産する工場を対象に見直した。同社は月1500トン程度を輸入しており、業務用として外食チェーンや食品卸、ハム・ソーセージメーカーなどに出荷している。10月末までに委託工場を半分以下に絞り込んだことで、中国からの輸入量は月1000トン以下に減少した。

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日本郵船、増船計画を50－60隻縮小　中計１年目で見直し

　日本郵船は世界景気の減速をうけて2008―10年度の事業計画を見直す。運航する船舶を10年度末に07年度末比で約200隻（29％）増強する計画を50―60隻縮小し、10年度までの業績目標も下方修正する。資源や工業製品の荷動きは急速に鈍化し、短期での回復は見込めないと判断した。同社は運航隻数で世界最大手の一角。同じ最大手の商船三井も増強計画を縮小するなど、拡大一辺倒だった事業戦略を修正する。

　日本郵船は今年3月末に、10年度までの中期経営計画を発表したばかり。宮原耕治社長は「世界景気は底打ちまであと2年はかかる。年明けに見直し作業に入る」と述べた。(07:00)

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高級マグロの養殖拡大　マルハニチロなど水産大手

　水産大手が高級マグロであるクロマグロの養殖事業を拡大する。マルハニチロホールディングス（ＨＤ）は来春をメドに和歌山県串本町に養殖場を新設。新規参入する極洋は稚魚の数を当初計画より増やし、日本水産もいけすを増設する。いずれも高級すし店やスーパー向けなどに供給する。世界的にマグロの漁獲規制が強化される一方、国内外で需要は増えている。3社は2009年度の生産量を計約3000トンと07年度比5割増とする。

　クロマグロはマグロの最高品種とされる。養殖は一般的に餌代などに費用がかかるため、マグロでもメバチなど割安な魚種では採算が合いにくい。このため各社は高値で販売できるクロマグロだけを養殖する。09年度の国内の養殖量は1万トンが見込まれ、3割を3社が占めることになる。(07:00)