American drilling techniques may migrate overseas

American drilling techniques may migrate overseas

By MARK WILLIAMS, AP Energy Writer Mark Williams, Ap Energy Writer – Sat Feb 21, 2:33 pm ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio – With one eye cast toward home, giant European energy companies are investing billions in U.S. natural gas and oil fields where huge, hard-to-get reserves have been unlocked with new drilling technology.

That technology is the prize in Europe, where gas production has declined and where an international utility dispute recently left people in more than a dozen European countries shivering in unheated homes.

Europe's natural gas supply is routed through Ukraine from Russia. Russia supplies about one-quarter of the EU's natural gas, with 80 percent of it shipped through Ukraine. A rift between the two nations left more than a dozen European countries with little or no gas for two weeks last month.

Declines in European gas production has potentially made the new techniques used in the U.S. even more pivotal.

At least three European oil and gas giants are developing or have bought interests in oil and gas shale projects in the U.S. — Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro, the U.S. unit of British oil company BP Plc and French company Total.

StatoilHydro and BP have agreed in recent months to pay billions of dollars for stakes in shale gas projects from the top U.S. producer of gas, Chesapeake Energy. Total has bought a 50 percent stake in a U.S. company exploring for oil shale in the Rocky Mountains.

"Given the magnitude of oil shale resources we believe that this project has an important long-term potential for global energy markets," Yves-Louis Darricarrere, Total's exploration and production president, said in announcing Total's deal with American Shale Oil.

Shale is a kind of layered, sedimentary rock that exists in formations throughout the world. In the U.S., gas production from shale dates back to the 1800s.

But the gas, tightly locked in rock formations, had been extraordinarily expensive to extract. That began to change about 15 years ago as producers developed new techniques such as horizontal drilling, where the drill is turned in a right angle to bore into a gas reservoir horizontally.

Gas from shale now amounts to about 5 percent of total U.S. production, according to the Gas Technology Institute.

If the same technology works in Europe it could free up an enormous amount of energy, and potentially provide a buffer against cross-border disputes to the east.

StatoilHydro bought into Chesapeake Energy's massive Appalachian Marcellus shale project for $3.37 billion in November. Executive Vice President Rune Bjornson said at an energy conference this month in Houston that StatoilHydro wants to bring new drilling technology to other regions of the world.

If the race to duplicate drilling success in the U.S. is on, few companies are talking about it.

Even Aubrey McClendon, co-founder and chief executive of Chesapeake, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., said, "I doubt we will trumpet it as I think the combination of their international stature and presence and our knowledge of gas shale would do nothing but attract competition."

But it has become abundantly clear since a chilly two weeks in January that Europe's energy security has been diminished since the break up of the Soviet Union.

Buying into the technology in the U.S. makes sense and could spare European companies years of development, said Don Hertzmark, an international energy expert.

"The Europeans never bothered to develop this stuff," he said.

U.S. companies stand to expand through new markets in Europe if the new techniques work, and many experts believe that they will.

Energy companies are now funding a six-year study to locate gas deposits in Europe and to determine if they can be exploited.

"The companies that are involved here — they're not beginners," said Brian Horsfield of the GFZ German Research Center, which is heading the study. "It could come online within three years if it turns out these gas shales really are as prolific as we're led to believe."

Horsfield, a professor of organic geochemistry, said companies already have acquired land rights throughout Europe.

"The shale gas, if it were to be economic here, is very close to the user," Horsfield said. "That's one of the selling points, certainly, of our project on a nonscientific basis. And the events of the last month or so have helped to stress that."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said after the dispute between Russia and Ukraine was settled (the second dispute in recent years) that Europe must diversify its energy sources and supply route.

"It was utterly unacceptable that European gas consumers were held hostage to this dispute between Russia and Ukraine," he said.

----------------------
Vietnam to Halt Rice Exports Until July as Sales Exceed Target
Email | Print | A A A

By Ta Bao Long

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam, the world’s second-biggest rice shipper, will not sign export contracts for delivery until June after shipments in the first half of the year beat target, according to the Vietnam Food Association.

The association will only register contracts for delivery between July and September, according to a statement on its Web site. Export volumes for the first half weren’t provided. Calls to officials at the association weren’t immediately answered.

Vietnam plans to raise rice exports in 2009 by 6.4 percent to 5 million tons as favorable weather aids the nation’s largest harvest of the year and adequate reserves enable increased sales, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Diep Kinh Tan said Feb. 11.

More than 5 million tons of unmilled rice will be harvested this month and in March in half of the 1.8 million hectares (4.44 million acres) of paddy fields in the Mekong Delta, farm minister Coa Duc Phat said Feb. 10.

---------------------------
Fannie Mae Rescue Hindered as Asians Seek Guarantee (Update2)
Email | Print | A A A

By Wes Goodman and Jody Shenn

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Asian investors won’t buy debt and mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until they carry explicit U.S. guarantees, similar to those given on bonds issued by Bank of America Corp. or Citigroup Inc.

The risks are too great without a pledge that the U.S. will repay the debt no matter what, according to Hideo Shimomura, chief fund investor in Tokyo for Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., and other bondholders and analysts in Japan, China and South Korea interviewed by Bloomberg. Overseas resistance may hamper U.S. efforts to hold down home-loan rates and shore up the nation’s largest mortgage-finance companies.

Even after President Barack Obama vowed on Feb. 18 to sink as much as $400 billion of capital into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, double the original commitment, “there is still a concern that there is no guarantee” from the government, said Shimomura, who oversees $4 billion in non-yen bonds for the arm of Japan’s largest bank.

“Looking at the risk, they’re not so attractive,” he said. “We need a guarantee before we’ll buy.”

Foreign investors sold $170 billion of agency debt and securities in the second half of 2008, the largest amount since the Treasury began tracking sales in 1977, according to the most recent data. Asians, the biggest non-U.S. block of owners in the category, unloaded $70 billion worth from July through December, after scooping up $55 billion in the second quarter and being net buyers during much of the last decade.

Lack of Confidence

The sell-off and calls for a guarantee reflect a continuing lack of confidence among foreign investors five months after the U.S. seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The takeovers followed the biggest surge in mortgage defaults in three decades.

Without restoring foreign demand, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will find it more difficult to cut rates on housing loans, which depend on the ability of the finance companies to attract investors for their securities at the lowest possible yield. Fannie and Freddie sell debt to fund their purchases of mortgage assets and also guarantee home-loan bonds sold by lenders.

The Fed, which promised to buy as much as $100 billion of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Home Loan Bank corporate debt, may need to spend more, according to Margaret Kerins, an agency-debt strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Buying Programs

The central bank last month indicated that it may increase this buying program as well as a second $500 billion one for mortgage-bond purchases. The Treasury has bought $94.2 billion worth of mortgage bonds under its own continuing program.

“You’d be back to the situation that prompted them to act” if the purchases of Fannie and Freddie debt were discontinued before foreign investors return, Kerins said. The agency-debt market has recently improved as the “crowding out effect” from sales of government-guaranteed bank debt has proven less than expected, something that may lessen the need for government buying, she added.

The Fed’s buying program resulted in a yield of 2.06 percent on Fannie Mae notes maturing May 2012 at the close of trading Feb. 18 -- 0.15 percentage point less than government-guaranteed Bank of America bonds maturing a month later and 0.12 percentage point less than similar Goldman Sachs Group Inc. debt, according to RBS Greenwich data.

Yield Spreads

Yield gaps between Fannie Mae’s 10-year debt and Treasuries have narrowed from the record of 1.75 percentage point set in November, after countries worldwide announced plans to back bank bonds and offer buyers more federal guarantees. At 0.64 percentage point, it is now 0.27 percentage point above what the spread averaged in 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to a record low of 4.96 percent last month from 6.47 percent in the last week of October, according to Freddie Mac surveys. It rose to 5.04 percent during the week ended yesterday.

Fannie Mae, based in Washington, and Freddie Mac, in McLean, Virginia, have about $1.7 trillion of corporate debt outstanding and $3.7 trillion of their guaranteed mortgage-backed securities held by other investors. The two mortgage companies finance almost half of the $12 trillion of residential loans outstanding.

The government-run conservatorship won’t end until the mortgage market recovers and the companies regain profitability, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said yesterday on Bloomberg Television. He took charge of Fannie and Freddie last September and describes the companies’ U.S. backing as “effective,” though not “explicit.”

‘Full-Faith’ Guarantee

That’s not enough for foreign investors these days, said Laurie Goodman, a senior managing director at Austin, Texas-based Amherst Securities Group LP. Goodman was a former head of fixed- income research at UBS AG.

“Overseas investors are looking for the full-faith-and- credit clarification,” Goodman said. Such a pledge would essentially about double the U.S.’s debt, potentially boosting the country’s own borrowing costs.

“The U.S. government is worried about the agency market, and market participants feel the same way,” said Kei Katayama, head of the foreign fixed-income group in Tokyo at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd., who oversees $1.6 billion of non-yen bonds for the arm of Japan’s second-biggest brokerage.

Katayama sold all of his agency debt on Sept. 16, the day after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed the biggest bankruptcy ever, taking it as a sign to get out of riskier assets, he said.

Difficult to Sell

The bonds also have been difficult to sell after credit markets froze last year, according to Jaemin Cheong, who trades U.S. securities in Seoul at Industrial Bank of Korea, South Korea’s biggest lender to small and mid-size companies. He said he won’t touch them.

Sellers in the fourth quarter included Caribbean-based investors, often hedge funds, which dumped a net $35.8 billion of the agency debt and securities after buying $15.7 billion in September. China sold $10.4 billion in the period after unloading $8 billion in September, while South Korea got rid of $10.5 billion.

“China’s demand for U.S. agency bonds will gradually decrease because China has drawn lessons from the credit crisis and learned to invest smarter,” said Yi Xianrong, a researcher at the Beijing-based financial research institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which advises the government. “We will try to stay away from these types of bonds.”

Freddie Mac Treasurer

Freddie Mac Treasurer Peter Federico connects the sales to certain institutions and doesn’t think it is part of “a broader liquidation,” although “it kind of felt like that for a couple of weeks or months later in the year.

“There are a couple of institutions who continue to sell agency debt,” he said in a Feb. 18 telephone interview. “I think their reasoning for doing that is not related to their comfort with our credit. It’s their own monetary-management and currency-related issues. Apart from those institutions, I don’t believe there is a lot of demand to sell going forward.”

Federico spoke after the company completed a record $10 billion, three-year note sale at yields of 2.24 percent, or 0.02 percent more than JPMorgan Chase & Co. offered in a sale of government-guaranteed, three-year debt of the same size.

Asian investors bought 12 percent of this week’s sale, and North American investors purchased 72 percent, according to the company.

More U.S. Buyers

The U.S. share was high in comparison to recent years, “but it’s very consistent with what we’ve seen over the last six months, where the U.S. domestic investor who probably understands the conservatorship status better than foreign investors has really been supporting the market in a big way,” said Drew Ertman, head of financial-institutions debt coverage at Morgan Stanley, one of the underwriters.

Amy Bonitatibus, a Fannie Mae spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Sales of agency debt and securities may be more closely tied to the availability of better returns in corporate bonds than a lack of faith among investors, according to Andrew Harding, chief investment officer for fixed income at Allegiant Asset Management in Cleveland. Those include bank debt with explicit U.S. guarantees offering higher yields, he said.

“I don’t think the credit quality or housing market has precluded people from buying agency debt right now,” said Harding, who helps manage $20 billion for Allegiant. “There are just more attractive alternatives.”

Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co. spent last year trimming “risky assets,” and it sold all agency holdings in the third quarter, said Satoshi Okumoto, general manager at the company in Tokyo, which has $63.5 billion in assets.

“It’s not really the same credit” as government debt, Okumoto said. “It’s one step below.”

-------------------------
Tougher immigration rules for non-EU workers

By Jimmy Burns

Published: February 22 2009 23:27 | Last updated: February 22 2009 23:27

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, signalled a further tightening of immigration controls on Sunday as the government faces growing pressure over rising unemployment.

New curbs being considered by ministers threaten to affect the rights of families of migrant non-European Union workers to visit and stay in the UK. There are also plans for tougher restrictions on non-EU workers applying for skilled jobs under the points-based system.

Ms Smith told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “Migration is important for the country but, at a time when we have more people actually looking for work within the UK, it is also economically right that we are more selective about those who come into this country.”

The home secretary said she had asked the government’s migration advisory committee to look at the impact that the dependants of immigrants from outside the EU were having on the economy.

Ms Smith also pledged to use the flexibility built into the points system to make sure it was “responding to the current economic circumstances”, raising the qualifications and salary levels required by qualified workers who do not have to have a job in the UK before they enter the country.

From April, non-EU workers seeking skilled jobs in the UK will have to have a masters degree and a previous salary equivalent to at least £20,000.

While the majority of people likely to be affected by the tougher measures will be from the Indian sub-continent or Africa, Ms Smith denied she was being racist.

“What I think is important is that we base our policy, not on prejudice, but on a judgment about what is best for the British economy, for British workers,” she insisted.

The ministerial intervention comes in the midst of a continuing and unresolved political debate over the controversial promise by Gordon Brown, prime minister, of “British jobs for British workers” which has intensified as the recession has deepened.

The slogan, which is being exploited politically by the far-right British National party in the run-up to the European elections, has come under fresh scrutiny. Figures published earlier this month by the Office for National Statistics showed that employment of UK-born workers fell by almost 280,000 last year while employment of foreign-born workers rose by 214,000.

------------------------
生活保護受給者向けに当番弁護士、福岡県弁護士会が導入
特集 大揺れ雇用

　雇用情勢が悪化する中、福岡県弁護士会は３月２日に生活保護版の「当番弁護士制度」を導入する。

　日曜日も相談を受け付け、無料で市区町村への受給申請に同行したり、訴訟になった場合の代理人を務めたりする。同弁護士会によると、こうした取り組みは市民団体が行っている例はあるが、弁護士会単位では全国初という。

　厚生労働省によると、生活保護受給者は約１５０万人（２００６年度）。行政側は「できる限り応じるように指導している」（福岡市保健福祉局保護課）としているが、福岡県弁護士会生活保護問題対策委員会の平田広志委員長によると、受給審査は厳しくなっており、資格があるにもかかわらず門前払いされる人も少なくないという。

　県内の３０歳代男性の場合、いじめが原因でアルバイトをやめ、新たな職場では「派遣切り」された。所持金が十数円になり生活保護を申請したところ、福祉事務所の担当者から「アルバイトの時に自分からやめた」という理由で追い返された。ホームレスの６０歳代男性は「住居がないから支給できない」と断られた。

　いずれのケースも弁護士が役所に同行。「『働けるのにやめた』という理由で支給しないのは法の拡大解釈」「現在住んでいる場所が明らかなら支給すべきだ」と話し、受給が認められたという。

　「当番弁護士制度」は、生活保護問題に詳しい弁護士７７人を登録。県内４か所の法律相談センターで受け付け、弁護士に連絡する。相談や訴訟にかかる弁護士費用は、日本弁護士連合会が費用を肩代わりする「委託法律援助事業」を活用し、依頼者には負担を求めない。

　ホームレスの自立支援に取り組むＮＰＯ法人・北九州ホームレス支援機構の奥田知志理事長は「困窮状態の人は精神面でも孤立し追い込まれることが多く、即座に法知識のある弁護士の助言を受けられるのは心強い。行政を動かす原動力になってほしい」と話す。

　受け付けは天神弁護士センター（０９２・７４１・３２０８）など。年末年始と盆を除いて無休。平日は午前９時～午後７時、土日祝日は午前９時～午後１時。（川口知也）

-----------------------------
Soros sees no bottom for world financial "collapse"
Fri Feb 20, 2009 8:21pm EST

NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis.

Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union.

He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a turning point in the functioning of the market system.

"We witnessed the collapse of the financial system," Soros said at a Columbia University dinner. "It was placed on life support, and it's still on life support. There's no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom."

His comments echoed those made earlier at the same conference by Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who is now a top adviser to President Barack Obama.

Volcker said industrial production around the world was declining even more rapidly than in the United States, which is itself under severe strain.

"I don't remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world," Volcker said.

-----------------------
Japan's bigger companies feel the bond pinch

By Lindsay Whipp and Robin Harding in Tokyo

Published: February 23 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 23 2009 02:00

Japan's larger and better-known companies are joining their smaller rivals in facing a harsher funding environment, as the global economic crisis gets a tighter grip on the country.

Extreme risk aversion in the domestic corporate bond market has made it difficult even for companies with single A credit ratings to issue bonds, at a time when terms and conditions for loans are getting more strict.

"We only have two options at the moment: one is to borrow from the banks and the other is CP [commercial paper]," said Takao Ono, finance director of NEC, the electronics group. "The corporate bond market is pretty weak. We are rated 'A' with R&I [the Japanese rating agency], but at the moment the market is basically closed unless you are rated 'AA' or above."

NEC is not alone. "At the end of November the long- term bond market was closed," said the corporate treasurer of a large electronics company. "[The situation improved] but is getting worse again," he noted at the end of January.

The tougher times facing overseas banks have also made securing foreigncurrency loans more difficult in Japan. Sony, for example, has been struggling to find acceptable terms to replace a non-yen facility expiring in March.

Though these larger companies are unlikely to run out of cash, because their main banks are supporting them, funds for long-term investment are scarce.

The Bank of Japan is trying to help free up the credit markets through its plan to buy up to Y1,000bn ($10.7bn) in highly-rated corporate bonds from financial institutions, in addition to purchasing more commercial paper.

Bond issuance to institutional investors in Japan slid 28 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Dealogic.

Meanwhile, the country's large financial institutions are instead tapping the retail investor market with large bond issuances. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial last week issued a record Y450bn in bonds to retail investors, following Sumitomo Mitsui Financial's $1.46bn issuance earlier this month.

Japanese companies have traditionally utilised deep and long-term ties with their main banks to secure funding, in many cases not having much risk priced in to their loans. Bankers said this attitude might have to change in the present crisis, which has pushed the economy quickly into a deep recession as exports tumble.

"The current situation is unprecedented," said one banker. "In 1998 and 1999 [during the Japanese financial crisis] banks were curbing loans to limited sectors but now all sectors are facing difficulties. I don't know how Japanese banks going forward will have to treat companies like Hitachi and Sony."

-----------------------------
Cerberus poised to close HK office

By Sundeep Tucker in Hong Kong and Martin Arnold in,London

Published: February 23 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 23 2009 02:00

Cerberus, the US private equity firm, is in advanced discussions to close its Hong Kong office in the latest sign of industry giants scrambling to reduce costs amid the global economic slowdown.

People familiar with the matter said Cerberus was planning to close its Hong Kong base less than two years after opening the office with the expectation of a steady rise in China-related business.

Cerberus said yesterday: "A month ago we took steps to put resources where opportunities are in light of the global financial crisis and changing economic environment and Hong Kong is no exception to that."

The US buy-out group has long had a presence in Japan and Taiwan but decided to ramp up its China presence with the opening of a Hong Kong and Beijing office following its hiring of John Snow, the former Treasury secretary, in 2006.

It is unclear whether Cerberus will also scale down or close its Beijing or Taipei offices but the expected closure of its Hong Kong office reflects the need to respond to falling deal activity in the region. "Barring any late change of mind at Cerberus, I think that closing the Hong Kong office is a done deal," said one person familiar with the situation.

Mr Snow, chairman of Cerberus, said on a press trip to Asia in 2007 that he believed his firm could help boost performance at China's state-owned enterprises and create employment.

He even flagged up a presence in India over the long term.

Since then, Cerberus has been forced to go to the US government with cap in hand seeking a bail-out of two of its biggest portfolio companies: Chrysler, the ailing carmaker, and GMAC, the car finance company.

The buy-out group, named after the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades in Greek mythology, last month took some of its own medicine by unveiling plans to cut 10 per cent of its 275 staff.

Many of the private equity industry's leading names have started cutting back their footprint in Asia, which they had built up in recent years, attracted by the region's fast-growing economies.

In December, 3i, the private equity company listed in the UK, announced plans to close its offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai and relocate its China dealmakers to a single office in Beijing.

--------------------------
Iran does not possess a nuclear weapons programme

Published: February 23 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 23 2009 02:00

From Mr Fariborz S. Fatemi.

Sir, Before the teeth gnashing, "iffy" scenarios and threats start and overwhelm us, everyone should take a deep breath ("Iran holds enough uranium for a bomb", February 20).

First, it must be emphasised over and over again, Iran has accumulated only low-enriched uranium. The next step to provide the raw materials for a single bomb is a huge step that will not go undetected. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said repeatedly: "All nuclear materials, as well as all installed cascades, remain under agency containment and surveillance."

Second, Iran has never attacked anyone in several centuries. Third, Iran has no nuclear weapons programme.

This was the conclusion of 16 US national intelligence agencies. That was affirmed again last September 16 by Gen Michael Hayden, CIA director, who said: "We assessed that the nuclear weapons programme had not resumed as of mid-2007, a conclusion that subsequent intelligence still supports."

Theories that Iran "could" reach "break-out capacity" or "cross red lines" are just that - theories. The reality is that 30 years of enmity and isolation between the US and Iran have only resulted in profound ignorance and misconceptions. That must be changed. More of the same will not do.

America must move quickly to open unconditional dialogue with Iran, put a heavy weight such as Brent Scowcroft in charge of Iran policy, and open an interest section, staffing it with Farsi-speaking US diplomats.

With Iran's potential help so vital to US security interests in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region, the time for that smart diplomacy is now.

Fariborz S. Fatemi,

Former Professional Staff Member,

House Foreign Affairs Committee,

Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

McLean, VA, USA

------------------------
Dubai markets jump on news of loan

By Simeon Kerr in Dubai and Robin Wigglesworth and Andrew England in Abu Dhabi

Published: February 22 2009 17:33 | Last updated: February 23 2009 07:38

Dubai markets jumped higher in early trade on Monday on the news that the United Arab Emirates will lend the emirate at least $10bn in a bail-out aiming to restore confidence and rescue the struggling economy.

The Dubai Financial Market index rose 5 per cent as traders welcomed the sign that the federal institutions will help the government as it seeks to refinance its $74bn debt mountain. This includes $13bn of repayments due during the remainder of 2009, according to estimates by EFG-Hermes, a local investment bank.

Emaar Properties, a Dubai government-backed real estate giant, which was hit in trading on Sunday on news that its US unit had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, was up 12.7 per cent as the mood around Dubai lifted. DP World, a government-controlled container ports operator, rose 4.5 per cent on Nasdaq Dubai.

The spikes followed news that the UAE central bank, based in oil-rich Abu Dhabi, the capital, has subscribed up to half of a $20bn five year bond programme launched by the Dubai government. The unsecured paper yields a 4 per cent dividend.

“This program will secure the necessary funding for Dubai to meet its financial obligations and continue its development program,” the Dubai government said on Sunday.

Federal backing is designed to help restore confidence in the Dubai economy, the foundations of which are based on real estate, tourism and trade, making it particularly exposed to the global credit crunch.

“Things have been getting more difficult for Dubai on a daily basis... They had to make the decision before it became too late,” said an official in Abu Dhabi.

Government-owned Borse Dubai’s $3.4bn refinancing went down to the wire last week, illustrating the grim state of credit markets and highlighting the sense of tapping a federal facility.

The loan should ease the cost of insuring against a default, which in recent weeks saw five-year credit default swaps on Dubai debt rising to levels similar to Iceland.

Dubai, which maintains some autonomy within the federation, walked away from plans for a similar federal facility last November. Dubai officials declined to comment.

The federal government, located in Abu Dhabi, has long been expected to help Dubai, which lacks oil resources but has built a vibrant, services-focused economy.

To date, the UAE government has made up to Dh120bn ($$32.7bn) available to banks in all seven emirates and also agreed to rescue Dubai’s two mortgage companies, Amlak and Tamweel.

But Abu Dhabi earlier this month injected Dh16bn into its own banking sector, rather than supporting all financial institutions in the UAE, triggering a wave of concern over Dubai.

Borse Dubai last week refinanced the $3.8bn it borrowed to buy Scandinavian exchanges group OMX, but it faced challenges while raising the $2.5bn to help retire the debt.

Local banks at the eleventh hour put in $1bn to the loan syndicate. Speculation rose that the federal government had contributed to the deal.

Bankers have since said that Investment Corporation of Dubai, Borse Dubai’s main shareholder and a holding company for government assets, persuaded local banks to lend.

Nonetheless, the new federal money is likely to restore faith in Dubai’s troubled real estate sector, where more than half the developments have been abandoned as financing dries up and demand disappears. Property prices are in freefall, dropping on average a quarter from the third to fourth quarters last year.

Dubai grew rapidly during the petrodollar boom of the past six years, borrowing heavily to finance infrastructure expansion and to fund overseas investments.

”Thanks heavens, the money is coming,” said a senior banker in Dubai.

---------------------------
French tourist dies in Cairo bombing

By Heba Saleh in Cairo

Published: February 23 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 23 2009 02:00

A French tourist was killed and at least 20 people, including Europeans, were injured yesterday in a bomb blast near a café in an area of Cairo popular with foreign visitors because of its craft markets and Islamic monuments.

The attack, the first in Cairo since 2005, is a setback for a country already struggling with the impact of the global economic downturn on its crucial tourism sector - a major employer and the second largest source of foreign revenue.

Police and witnesses said unknown attackers threw two explosive devices, either from a rooftop or from a moving motorcycle, in a usually bustling square lined with restaurants and coffee shops in front of the Al Hussein mosque in the medieval part of the city.

Only one of the two bombs exploded; the other was found and defused by police.

The injured include Egyptians as well as tourists from France, Germany and Saudi Arabia. Some are said to be in critical condition.

It is not clear who is behind the attacks, though suspicion is bound to fall on Islamic militants.

Scores of tourists were killed in a wave of bombings against beach resorts in the Sinai peninsula from 2004 to 2006, but the militant group responsible for those attacks is understood to have been dismantled by the security forces.

Tourism dipped in the immediate aftermath of those attacks, but quickly bounced back.

The two main militant factions that operated in Egypt during the 1990s, targeting tourists and political figures, have both renounced violence completely.

In 2005 a tiny group that used crude homemade explosive devices carried out three attacks against tourists in Cairo, including one very near Sunday's bombing. That killed four people, including the bomber.

A record 12.8m visitors went to Egypt last year. Tourism accounts for 6.5 per cent of the economy and it employs directly or indirectly 12.6 per cent of the workforce. Analysts and officials have been expecting a drop in arrivals as a result of deteriorating economic conditions in Europe, the source of the vast majority of visitors to Egypt.

---------------------------
Swiss warn on US move over UBS clients

By Haig Simonian in Zurich

Published: February 22 2009 20:29 | Last updated: February 22 2009 20:29

Switzerland’s finance minister has accused US authorities of “shock” tactics to compel holders of undeclared UBS accounts to come forward, but warned that court action to discover the names of thousands of clients would not succeed.

Hans-Rudolf Merz, finance minister and Switzerland’s head of state this year under its rotating presidency, defended the Swiss government’s role in prompting the world’s biggest wealth manager to breach hallowed bank secrecy and last week reveal some 250-300 client names to the US.

But Mr Merz, speaking in a weekend radio broadcast, said the disclosure last week of a limited number of account holders suspected of tax fraud did not mean UBS, or the Swiss government, would bow to a separate US drive to identify all the bank’s American clients with offshore accounts in Switzerland.

The comments came amid fierce debate in Switzerland, home to an estimated one-third of the world’s offshore assets, about the future of bank secrecy.

Politicians from across party lines accused the government of weakness and ineptitude in submitting to US pressure and putting bank secrecy at risk. Financial services account for about 13 per cent of Switzerland’s gross domestic product, and bank secrecy is seen as a cornerstone of the country’s success as a financial centre.

The accusations followed last week’s unprecedented decision by Finma, the Swiss bank and insurance regulator, to order UBS to transfer the 250-300 client names to the US Department of Justice.

The move came after fears the US authorities would indict Switzerland’s biggest bank, or impose swingeing fines, either of which could have endangered its future.

Eugen Haltiner, Finma chairman, said the authority had had to act to prevent a crisis of confidence at UBS that could have threatened the future of Switzerland’s biggest bank and the world’s biggest wealth manager.

But Finma’s disclosure order, taken at the indirect behest of the government, has also triggered a judicial crisis, with lawyers of incensed UBS clients now pressing for it to be declared illegal.

Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court, the highest body involved, will this week consider motions filed by UBS clients arguing that Finma’s order breached bank secrecy laws. Late on Friday the court issued a temporary injunction barring the release of further client details.

Well-placed bankers said the 250-300 names had already been transferred to the US authorities as part of the $780m settlement negotiated by UBS in return for the suspension of criminal charges of assisting in tax evasion filed against it by the DoJ.

Mr Merz and his critics were united in saying Switzerland would defend bank secrecy in the separate civil action being pursued against UBS by the US Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS is demanding the bank reveal the names of all its US offshore clients, rather than just the tiny minority who set up sham companies to evade tax and whose names were disclosed last week.

Mr Merz echoed senior Swiss bankers in questioning the chances of such an attempt succeeding in court.

--------------------------
UBS victim of rising fear of globalisation

By Joanna Chung in Washington and Haig Simonian in Zurich

Published: February 22 2009 20:29 | Last updated: February 22 2009 20:29

With the rapid growth of the internet and the globalisation of the economy in the past decade, US authorities are said to have become increasingly worried about the long-term future of tax compliance. This has had resounding implications for UBS.

Switzerland’s biggest bank agreed last Wednesday to pay $780m in fines and turn over some customer names to the US government as part of a landmark settlement, in which it admitted that it had helped thousands of clients evade taxes.

The following day, the US Department of Justice said it was still seeking, through a civil lawsuit, to force UBS to disclose the holders of 52,000 accounts with about $14.8bn in assets.

Charles Grice, managing director of CRI Compliance, a regulatory consulting firm, said: “This is a shot at the entire offshore community including the asset managers and people who rent out their names to US taxpayers,”

While tax enforcement has long been a priority for the US government, lawyers and other experts have said that US prosecutors are taking advantage of the momentum of the UBS probe to step up enforcement of US tax compliance globally.

Timeline

● January 2008 – The Financial Times reveals UBS is to wind down its Switzerland-based offshore banking activities for US clients following US regulatory pressure, buoyed by information from Bradley Birkenfeld, ex-UBS private banker turned whistleblower.
● May 7 2008 – The FT reveals US authorities detain “as a material witness” Martin Liechti, head of UBS’s offshore banking activities for the Americas, in Miami.
● May 2008 – US Department of Justice indicts Birkenfeld and Mario Staggl, partner in a Liechtenstein trust company, for activities helping Igor Olenicoff, a US property tycoon, to evade tax.
● June 2008 – Birkenfeld changes his plea to guilty. Sentencing due in May 2009.
● June 30 2008 – US government files petition with US District Court to serve “John Doe” summons on UBS. Summons would compel the bank to reveal confidential information about all US offshore clients.
● July 1 2008 – Order issued permitting IRS to serve John Doe summons.
● July 17 2008 US Senate permanent sub-committee on investigations holds hearings on banks’ role in assisting with tax evasion. Mark Branson, chief
financial officer for UBS’s private bank, offers apology and full co-operation.
● July 21 2008 – John Doe summons served on UBS.
● August 2008, Liechti returns to Switzerland.
● November 2008 –
Raoul Weil, UBS head of private banking, indicted by federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Indictment suggests other unnamed UBS executives may also face indictment.
● February 18 2009 – US District Court approves $780m deal between UBS and the US to settle criminal charges. However, Weil, since declared a fugitive, remains indicted.
● February 19 2009 – Government files petition with US District Court asking to enforce John Doe summons. UBS responds that it will vigorously challenge the enforcement.

There is also growing pressure from some politicians to crack down on offshore tax havens.

John DiCicco, acting assistant attorney general of the US Department of Justice’s tax division, said last week that the deferred prosecution agreement reached with UBS was “but one milestone in an ongoing law enforcement effort”.

Congressional investigators from the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations accused leading Wall Street banks late last year of using complex derivatives “gimmicks” to help hedge funds and other offshore clients avoid taxes.

It appears that negotiations have been partly tempered by the escalating financial turmoil, with prosecutors consulting the Federal Reserve, UBS’s primary US banking regulator, in reaching the settlement, a move that experts say is fairly unusual.

The agreement said: “In recognition of the current international financial crisis and after consultation with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the government will forgo additional penalties”.

The pursuit of UBS is far from over, however, with the US government taking a two-part approach.

Now that the deferred prosecution agreement has been reached in the criminal investigation, authorities are putting their resources into enforcing the so-called John Doe summons.

The summons seeks information on the accounts of thousands of US citizens at UBS in Switzerland, where such information is protected by financial privacy laws.

The US action against UBS followed investigations into KPMG, the accounting group, and some banks.

Bankers do not believe UBS was singled out unfairly or deliberately, but they note three factors made the Swiss group vulnerable. First, as the world’s biggest wealth manager, action against UBS would set an example to others.

A top banker, who asked not to be named, said.“You start with the biggest one”. And a leading tax lawyer said: “When the police set up a speed trap, they pull over the red Ferrari, not the souped-up Skoda, so everyone will notice,”.

Secondly, UBS had shortcomings in its compliance procedures regarding business with US offshore clients – to which it has now admitted.

And third, the US authorities had access to unprecedented information, thanks to Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS private banker turned whistleblower.

However, the timing of the US drive may also have been affected by broader factors. Bankers say the Internal Revenue Service is resuming an aggressive strategy in pursuing tax evasion that lapsed during the Bush administration.

Bankers also note a tendency for all governments to become more aggressive in pursuing tax evasion as state finances become more strained. The recent crackdown by Germany that focused on account holders in Liechtenstein is seen in a similar vein.

Whatever happens, it is unlikely that the business of undeclared bank accounts and tax avoidance will dry up, according to Benn Steil at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mr Steil said: “This is certainly a blow to UBS and the Swiss banking system. But these services will migrate to other jurisdictions and other types of institutions. It’s always an ongoing battle.”

-------------------------
Diamonds in a toothpaste tube as keen bankers sought to help

By Haig Simonian in Zurich

Published: February 23 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 23 2009 02:00

UBS's problems with the US authorities spring from the bank's operations in Geneva, Zurich and Lugano, where 60-70 private bankers catered to the needs of wealthy US clients with accounts in Switzerland.

Those operations have now been dissolved. As part of the bank's settlement last week with the US Department of Justice, the closure of the accounts, already put in train by UBS last year, is being accelerated.

Such business with US holders of "offshore" accounts had been conducted for decades. As with other Swiss private banks, UBS argued it was not responsible for policing whether customers had declared their holdings to their relevant domestic tax authority - in the US case, the Internal Revenue Service.

With contacts between the bank and customers historically kept to a minimum and both sides acutely aware of the need for confidentiality, information about potential tax evasion seldom emerged. Moreover, Swiss private bankers were steeped in the traditions of client confidentiality - and knew they faced severe penalties from their employer and under Swiss law for breaching that code.

However, two recent developments made continuing such business much more difficult for UBS, especially regarding US clients.

At the bank, an intense emphasis on growth from senior managers since about 2005 may have tempted some staff to become less cautious, say well-placed insiders.

Such temptations may have been reinforced by greater use of performance-based incentives in private bankers' total remuneration.

Any temptation to cut corners was limited to a tiny minority, the insiders say. But, in spite of elaborate compliance procedures, strict internal guidelines and, in some cases, loopholes in US legislation leaving significant "grey" areas, some bankers may have been too eager to help their clients hide income and assets from the IRS.

In published testimony, Bradley Birkenfeld, the former Geneva-based UBS private banker who has co-operated with the US Department of Justice, revealed, for example, how he squeezed diamonds into tubes of toothpaste to help a key client transfer assets without detection.

Such examples were extreme. But they came against the background of the efforts by UBS to boost its US "offshore" business. Among other tools, the bank used, for example, sponsored cultural events, such as the Art Basel Miami Beach exhibition, or sailing and tennis competitions, as platforms for its Switzerland-based private bankers to meet clients in the US and find new ones.

On the US side, improvements in information technology - and the massive crackdown on the presence and movements of foreign visitors after the September 11 terrorist attacks - gave the authorities vastly greater insight into the activities of Swiss bankers than before.

Surveillance was helped by Mr Birkenfeld's detailed knowledge, which included not just broad data about client numbers and assets held, but also elaborate internal UBS material about business practices.

The information provided included bank training material on how to develop US client networks by focusing on ethnic groups or particular interests, and even information on the use of specially encrypted computers and tactics for evading detection.

--------------------------
Fears rise over Russia’s foreign debt

By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: February 22 2009 20:21 | Last updated: February 22 2009 20:21

Western bankers are increasingly anxious about Russian companies’ ability to repay $500bn in foreign corporate debt after the government said this month it was suspending a $50bn bail-out programme as reserves dwindle.

Bankers are queuing up to meet government officials in a scramble for clarity after Igor Shuvalov, first deputy prime minister, said during a closed-door briefing this month that Russia was going to switch focus from bailing out tycoons to supporting the banking system. “The issue is how much state support will the government provide,” said one international banker involved in talks.

The policy shift has sparked a high-stakes poker game between foreign lenders, the Russian government and the country’s oligarchs as some bankers angle for state guarantees in order to go ahead with restructuring deals, while the government resists as it runs out of funds. In the middle are the oligarchs who, in order to survive, must win restructuring deals on more than $130bn of debt due this year.

‘The lack of clarity is a disaster ... People’s confidence levels are at bottom’

The most important case is Oleg Deripaska’s Rusal, the aluminium giant that appears to be Russia’s most indebted company, with total debts of about $17bn, $7bn of which are owed to foreign creditors.

Mr Deripaska told reporters over the weekend he did not need any financial support from the state. But foreign lenders have met officials in government and the Kremlin several times to gauge the level of state support before signing off on a “standstill agreement” on the foreign debt.

This would halt principal payments on the loans for at least two months, while the company reaches a broader restructuring deal, people familiar with the situation say. They add that the government has yet to give any indication on whether Rusal will receive support. Mr Deripaska said he hoped to reach agreement on the standstill in early March.

The level of government support for Russian corporate debt is likely to shape Russia’s ability to win international financing in future.

If there are any large defaults, bankers say they could stay away from Russia for years to come. The stand-off could also determine the direction of the country’s economy as questions are raised over whether the oligarchs should keep their empires, and infighting escalates between liberals and conservatives in the government over Russia’s evaporating hard currency reserves. “We are at a turning point in Russia,” said another senior western banker.

The government is in shock, bankers say, after the central bank’s reserves sunk from $588bn at their peak last summer to $386bn in early February as it defended the rouble against a slide exacerbated by the government’s own policy: the step-by-step devaluation it launched to shield the population from a sharp fall. Businessmen took advantage of the situation to make lucrative one-way bets against the rouble and a lot of these funds ended up on the accounts of Russian commercial banks. Some bankers estimate up to $110bn could be held, but it is not clear how much of these funds have been siphoned off abroad.

VEB, the state agency via which the central bank had agreed to disburse $50bn in bail-out for companies’ foreign debt, has confirmed it has suspended the refinancing programme. “We are not taking any more applications,” it said.

Instead, VEB said, Russia’s biggest companies would have to turn to the dollar cash held in Russian commercial banks first and seek restructuring deals with international lenders.

Igor Sechin, Russia’s powerful first deputy prime minister and industry and energy tsar, singled out Mr Deripaska’s Rusal on Friday in echoing this new approach. “I would like to point out that there is such a thing as the responsibility of shareholders – let them display their nous, inventiveness and energy,” he told reporters.

Rusal, he said, had already received an “unprecedented” amount of state help, referring to a $4.5bn state bail-out loan issued via VEB last year to prevent foreign banks from seizing the company’s 25 per cent stake in Norilsk Nickel. “The company has not yet exhausted all the ways of solving its problem.”

But Rusal needs more government backing to restructure nearly $7bn it owes to state banks. Mr Deripaska said the company had a mechanism to do so.

As the crisis deepens in Russia, the government also faces increasing domestic spending needs, leaving it uncertain how much cash it will have to help refinance corporate debt. One of the bankers involved in talks with the government, said: “They are trying to work out how much the budget deficit will be and how much money they will have to bail out companies ... This is absolutely uncharted territory for them.”

But bankers say the continuing lack of clarity over which companies will receive state aid since the VEB programme was cancelled is complicating efforts to agree restructuring deals. “The lack of clarity is a disaster in terms of winning the backing of credit committees,” said one western banker. “People’s confidence levels are at bottom.”

---------------------------
Banking secrecy needs to be redefined: Luxembourg

Yesterday, 02:49 pm
AFP

Banking secrecy needs to be redefined, but abolishing it abruptly is not in Europe's interest, Luxembourg's deputy prime minister said Sunday, amid renewed debate over the concept sparked by a US tax probe of Swiss banking giant UBS.

"Old school Luxembourgers say that without banking secrecy, our country would not have gained such importance as a financial centre," Jean Asselborn, who is also minister for foreign affairs and immigration, told the Swiss newspaper Sonntag.

"But in the 21st century, banking secrecy cannot be the only instrument with which Luxembourg drives its economy. Therefore, we need perhaps to redefine banking secrecy and little by little to expand on the advantage of competence," he said.

This week Switzerland's biggest bank UBS provided data on 250 to 300 clients to the US government, as it also admitted to aiding tax fraud in the United States.

However, a day later Washington upped the ante by filing a lawsuit to try to force UBS to disclose the identities of 52,000 US customers who allegedly evaded taxes, sparking debate about the "end" of banking secrecy.

Like Switzerland, Luxembourg has strict banking secrecy rules protecting client confidentiality.

Asselborn warned that it would not help the European Union to abolish banking secrecy suddenly, as money could flow out of Europe.

It could also lead to job losses, he added.

"We have 150,000 workers who cross the borders daily to work; 73,000 come daily from France, just as many come from Germany and Belgium. If the banking centre is destroyed, it is a disadvantage for not just Luxembourg, but the whole region," he said.

He also expressed frustration at critics for targetting Switzerland and Luxembourg amid the financial downturn.

"I am disturbed by the debate that concentrates on Switzerland and Luxembourg in the search for the cause of the financial crisis. It would be fatal and wrong to look for those guilty for the financial misery here.

"How banks in the US dealt with credit ... has nothing to do with Switzerland or Luxembourg, and nothing with banking secrecy."

Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg are the three European Union states with strict bank secrecy rules.

---------------------------
Vietnam to open first oil refinery

Yesterday, 06:43 am
AFP Peter Stebbings

Vietnam was to open its first oil refinery Sunday after more than a decade of delays, in what is being hailed as a significant moment in the country's development and energy security.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is expected to inaugurate the more than 2.5-billion-dollar Dung Quat refinery Sunday evening live on nationwide television, an indication of its importance to the communist country.

Although Vietnam has considerable offshore oil reserves, it currently has to import all its petroleum products, costing the southeast Asian nation hundreds of millions of dollars -- a figure rising as energy consumption soars.

It spent 10.88 billion dollars importing refined products in 2008, according to official figures, while exporting 10.45 billion dollars of crude oil.

State-owned PetroVietnam Group financed and will run the new facility, which is expected to churn out 6.5 million tonnes a year or 148,000 barrels per day -- about 30 percent of the country's needs.

PetroVietnam, which expects the refinery in the centre of the country to be at full capacity from August, is designing another refinery, in the north, and has tentative plans for a third as Vietnam strives for energy autonomy.

"Dung Quat refinery is one of the most modern in the world," said Dinh Van Ngoc, senior vice-president and chief executive of the arm of PetroVietnam that will run and manage the facility.

"It's very meaningful for Vietnam, both practically and also spiritually -- it can prove to the whole nation and Vietnamese people that Vietnam can build a refinery."

Ngoc told AFP the final figure for the cost of the refinery would be higher than 2.5 billion dollars but declined to be more specific.

The complex, built by an international consortium led by French oil services group Technip, has a long and chequered history.

When plans were first drawn up in the 1990s, the estimated cost was 1.5 billion dollars.

But several foreign backers pulled out, among them French giant Total, which baulked at the authorities' insistence that the refinery be built in a mainly agricultural area with no tradition of heavy industry.

Critics and foreign investors argued that central Quang Ngai province was too far from the offshore oil reserves in the south and from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's economically advanced commercial capital.

Experts say the government refused to have the first refinery anywhere else because it wanted to develop one of the poorest regions in the country.

The communist leaders also want to forge a new industrial area as a counterbalance to the capital Hanoi, in the north, and Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, in the south.

Authorities hope the refinery and the industrial zone being built around it will create jobs for more than 20,000 people in the area, spurring the local economy.

New roads have been built in the zone and around the refinery, with a handful of new factories springing up, including at least one from South Korea.

Bruno Le Roy, the engineer managing the site for Technip, acknowledged it was "a political decision" to build the refinery in Quang Ngai province, referring to the authorities' determination to bring money to central Vietnam.

"I've seen in the last two years a big change in this area," he told AFP at the refinery, which covers 338 hectares (834 acres) of what was once farmland.

Vietnam's economy grew 8.5 percent in 2007, and its energy needs for industry, households and transport are estimated to be rising at twice that rate.

Economic growth was however down to 6.2 percent in 2008, the lowest level in almost a decade, although premier Dung earlier this month said he expected the slowdown to end by May.

--------------------------
為替取引業者、年複数回の報告義務付け　資金決済法案

　金融庁が今通常国会に提出する「資金決済に関する法律案」の全容がわかった。登録制で為替取引を認める業者には年に複数回の定期報告を義務付け、顧客資産の保全を徹底する。銀行以外にも広範な店舗網や運送網を持つ事業者の参入を促し、利用者の利便性を高めるとともに、資産保全状況の確認を頻繁にすることで利用者保護と両立させる。

　銀行と同じく年1回の事業報告書に加え、資産保全状況などの定期報告を義務付けるのは、兼業規制を設けないため、ほかの事業に顧客資産を融通したりしないよう点検する狙いがある。頻度は未定だが、政省令で四半期や毎月などと定める。(10:23)

---------------------------
1月の世界粗鋼生産、24％減　中国は5カ月ぶりプラス

　世界鉄鋼協会（ワールドスチール）がまとめた1月の世界粗鋼生産（速報値、66カ国地域）は8576万トンと前年同月から24％減った。5カ月連続で減少したが、拡大していたマイナス幅は縮まった。最大の生産国である中国は5カ月ぶりのプラス。ただ残りの地域は2けた減が続いており、世界的な鉄鋼需要の下げ止まりにはほど遠い情勢だ。

　中国は4152万トンと前年同月比2.4％増え、2008年12月（3779万トン）と比べても9.9％伸びた。中国鉄鋼大手が昨秋から急ピッチで生産調整しており、在庫圧縮にめどがついたとの見方がある。(21:21)

--------------------------
三菱化学、ポリエステル繊維原料の国内生産撤退

　三菱化学は23日、ポリエステル繊維原料の国内生産から撤退すると発表した。繊維メーカーの海外シフトで国内の原料需要が減少しており、市場が拡大している中国やインドに軸足を移す。同事業の統括機能もシンガポールに移転する。

　ポリエステル原料のテレフタル酸を製造する松山工場（松山市）の生産設備を2010年12月に停止。水島事業所（岡山県倉敷市）では、テレフタル酸の原料となるパラキシレンの製造設備を10年5月に停止する。両工場で生産に携わる計80人の従業員は同一工場や近隣の工場などに配置転換する。

　三菱化学はテレフタル酸の総生産能力で英ＢＰグループに次ぐ世界2位。国内のほか韓国、中国、インド、インドネシアに製造拠点を持つ。需要が伸びているインドでは今月末に大規模設備が完成する予定で、国内との収益格差が広がっていた。(20:01)

------------------------
雪印乳業、家庭用バターやチーズ値上げ

　雪印乳業は23日、家庭用バターやチーズなど23品目を5月から順次値上げすると発表した。価格の引き上げと内容量の削減による実質値上げを合わせ、容量あたりの値上げ率は1－13％という。国内酪農家との乳価交渉で生乳価格の引き上げが決まったため。同社は2008年5月に家庭用バターなど、8月にチーズなどを値上げしている。

　家庭用バター7品目、チーズ9品目、スキムミルクなどそのほかの食品5品目の価格を引き上げる。代表的な商品である「北海道バター」（200グラム）の希望小売価格は税別350円から同365円にする。このほか家庭用チーズの2品目は容量を減らす。(17:13)

---------------------------
「子育てカフェ」１号店　東京・目黒区が認証

　東京都目黒区は20日、親子が飲食しながら交流できる「子育てカフェ」の第1号店を自由が丘に開設したと発表した。施設の整備費や運営費の一部を補助する。目黒区は2003―07年の合計特殊出生率が0.74人と、全国の市区町村で最低だった。子育てに悩む主婦らの交流の場を設け、少子化対策につなげる。

　第一号店として認証したのは、東急東横線「自由が丘」駅から徒歩3分のところにあるカフェレストラン「いいｃａｆｅ自由が丘　ａｉｋａｔａ」。昨年8月末に開業した。同12月に補助が決まってから子育てのためのカフェとしての機能を整備・充実してきた。

　カフェには、幼児向けのおもちゃや絵本、イス、授乳用のエプロン、離乳食を用意している。小さな子ども連れでも安心して食事できる。子どもの誕生日パーティーなどグループでの貸し切りも可能。趣味や子育てに関する講座も月1回開く。

------------------------------
井脇議員の財団、損失3.4億円を簿外処理

　自民党の井脇ノブ子衆院議員（比例近畿）がいずれも理事長を務める財団法人と学校法人との間で、不明朗な会計処理が行われていたことが23日、分かった。財団側は損失3億4000万円を学校法人側に肩代わりさせ、簿外で処理していた。大阪府庁で記者会見した井脇氏は大筋で事実関係を認め、「大失敗した責任を取る」と学校法人の理事長を辞任する意向を明らかにした。

　学校法人は国際開洋第一高校（静岡県菊川市）などを運営する「国際開洋学園」。財団法人は小中学生を対象にした船上研修などを実施する「少年の船協会」（東京・豊島）。

　協会を所管する厚生労働省は「事実関係は確認中だが、学園側からの貸付金については協会からの提出書類で報告を受けていない」（雇用均等・児童家庭局）としている。(14:01)

-----------------------------
大学下宿生：平均収入、１７年ぶり１２万９千円割る

　全国大学生活協同組合連合会は２３日、０８年の生活実態調査結果を発表した。下宿生の１カ月の平均収入は前年比４％減の１２万８８９０円で、９１年以来１７年ぶりに１２万９０００円を割り込んだ。支出では食費が２万４４３０円で７７年以降最低となる一方、貯蓄・繰越金が過去最多の１万２２６０円に増えた。

　調査は０８年１０～１１月に実施し、３５大学９９９９人の回答について分析した。収入の柱となる仕送りをみると、月５万円未満の比率が００年の１０．４％から２０．７％に倍増。「日常生活で気にかかっていること」（複数回答）との質問に対し、「生活費やお金」との回答が５０．６％と最多だった。同連合会広報は「経済危機が学生の生活にも影響しているのではないか」と話している。

----------------------------
民団：鄭進団長を再選　「地方参政権獲得に取り組む」

　在日本大韓民国民団（民団）は２３日、東京都内で第５１回定期中央大会を開き、鄭進（チョン・ジン）団長（７１）の再選を決めた。鄭団長は記者会見で「（日本国内での）地方参政権獲得などに取り組みたい」と抱負を語った。また、団長以外の３機関長のうち、議長に黄迎満（ファン・ヨンマン）氏（６９）、監察委員長に金昌植（キム・チャンシク）氏（７１）がそれぞれ選出された。

--------------------------
米政府：ＧＭとクライスラー再建　破綻スキーム検討

　【ワシントン斉藤信宏】米紙ウォールストリート・ジャーナル（電子版）は２３日、経営危機に陥っている米自動車大手ゼネラル・モーターズ（ＧＭ）とクライスラーの再建について、米政府が破綻（はたん）処理を視野に入れ金融機関などと具体策の検討に入った、と報じた。日本の民事再生法にあたる連邦破産法１１条に基づく破産手続きを進めることを想定、最低４００億ドル（約３兆７０００億円）の過去最大規模の破綻処理費用を見込んでいる。

　報道によると、政府関係者は「すべての選択肢を検討している」と破綻処理の可能性を認めた。ＧＭ、クライスラーの主要取引銀行のシティグループやＪＰモルガン・チェースと破綻処理に必要な費用について協議を始めており、銀行融資に政府保証をつける方向で交渉している。ただ、金融機関側は新たな融資に慎重な姿勢を崩していないという。

　オバマ米大統領は「自動車業界で今以上の大量失業を発生させることは望ましくない」と語るなど破綻処理に消極的だが、ガイトナー米財務長官らを中心とした特別作業部会は破綻処理を真剣に検討しているという。

　ＧＭとクライスラーは米政府に１７日提出した再建計画で、計５万人の人員削減など大規模なリストラ策を表明するとともに、米政府に対し計２１６億ドルの追加支援を要請していた。

--------------------------
ＳＦＣＧ破綻：行き詰まる貸金業　外資が融資一時停止

　商工ローン最大手のＳＦＣＧ（旧商工ファンド）が２３日、民事再生法の適用を申請したのは、外資系金融機関から調達した資金を高金利で中小企業に貸し付ける商法が金融危機で行き詰まったためだ。もともと強引な取り立てが社会問題化していたが、高利融資を制限した貸金業法改正により業績がさらに低迷し、最終的に市場に引導を渡された。

　ＳＦＣＧは、信用力が低く、銀行などから融資を受けられない中小・零細企業を対象に利息制限法の上限（１５～２０％）を超える「グレーゾーン金利」で融資してきた。日本の金融不安で「貸し渋り」が広がった９０年代後半に成長。強引な手法が批判を浴びたが、米リーマン・ブラザーズなど外資系金融機関から資金を調達し、これを元手に事業を展開してきた。

　だが、０６年１２月の貸金業法改正で「収益源」としてきた「グレーゾーン金利」が撤廃され、利息制限法の上限を上回る「過払い利息」の返還請求が相次いだ。さらに、昨年秋以降の金融危機に直撃された外資系金融機関がＳＦＣＧ向けの融資を一斉に停止したため、必要資金を調達できなくなり、破綻（はたん）に追い込まれた。

　消費者金融も含めた貸金業者は、改正貸金業法と金融危機の影響で資金繰りが厳しくなり、破綻が増加している。消費者金融大手は大手銀行の傘下に入るなど生き残り策を急いでいるが、ＳＦＣＧのような事業者向け金融は国内大手行が距離を置いていることから、後ろ盾もない。強引な取り立てが問題となったロプロ（旧日栄）も０８年３月期に２９１億円の赤字を計上するなど業績が悪化している。

　ただ、ＳＦＣＧが法的整理に踏み切ったことで、数百億円とみられる過払い金返還請求も「１００％の返還は困難」と言われている。返還を求めている中小企業には痛手で、事業者向け金融の破綻が増加を続けると、企業への影響も問題になりかねない。