Luxury jeweller Chow Tai Fook in mega Hong Kong listing

Its shops are a familiar presence on the streets of many Chinese cities, catering to the region's love of bling - be it spinach-coloured jade pendants, buttery gold wedding bracelets or dazzling diamond rings - but the name is unlikely to register far outside its home market.

The company's global anonymity looks set to disappear as the world's biggest jeweller prepares for what could be one of the world's biggest stock market flotations this year.

It is reportedly seeking to raise up to $3.5bn (£2.2bn; 2.5bn euro) via a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), which will likely take place early next month.

It is hoping that investors worldwide will be enticed by the opportunity to tap the growing appetite for luxury goods among China's newly rich.

"It is a very big brand in Hong Kong and it has really built up its network in China over the past few years and is increasingly popular there," said Ben Kwong, chief operating officer at securities firm KGI Asia.

Jewellery sales have been growing at 40% a year in China since 2008 and are a key part of the luxury goods market in China, which is expected to be worth $100bn (£64bn; 74bn euro) by 2020, according to brokerage group CLSA.

Chinese tastes
Chow Tai Fook also caters specifically to Chinese tastes, both with its line of products and customer service.

There is less of the silver and white gold jewellery popular in Europe and the US, but plenty of the high-karat yellow gold used to make traditional Chinese wedding jewellery and vivid green jade pendants that many Chinese believe offer health benefits to the wearer.

Diamonds are also a big part of their business.

Last year, the company purchased the world's most expensive rough diamond for a record-breaking $35.3m (£23.2m; 26m euro).

A Chow Tai Fook store in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district was busy one recent weekday afternoon.

Customers, mainly from mainland China, tried on diamond rings and gold bracelets.

Staff were attentive, offering jasmine tea in paper cups and presenting name cards to each prospective customer.

Diamond stud

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Corporate business secrets getting leaked on social media websites

NEW DELHI: Corporate espionage has been made easy by social networking websites as a well-devised strategy can result in the leak of valuable business secrets by employees and ex-employees, according to a study by Cyberoam, the security vertical of IT company Elitecore Technology.

"You just need to get into the social network of the company, worse still, you just need to be an Internet search expert to get information that required ages to find," Cyberoam Senior Vice-President for Product Management Abhilash Sonwane told PTI.

He added that by tracking the social networking activities of employees and ex-employees, an intangible set of information about the company -- such as core values, hierarchy, communication patterns, industry environment and employee morale -- can be derived without having to physically enter the organisation.

"Besides the intangibles, the tangible information such as intellectual property, financial information or even trade secrets can be available by monitoring the organisation's social presence," Sonwane said.

Cyberoam conducted a study early this year and selected a random set of 20 small and medium companies and tried to find out what could be derived from their social media and networking presence.

The 20 organisations included eight from the USA, four from India, two from Germany, seven from the UK and a couple from Singapore and Australia.

These firms belonged to the IT, manufacturing, pharma and PR, banking and financial institutions, consultancies and even media and entertainment industry, Sonwane said.

"We could find out information like the employees were not getting their salaries on time, there were cash flow issues in the organisation, salary checks were bouncing. As a result, the employees were looking for new jobs," he said.

Cyberoam extracted and collaged information from linkedin status updates, interactions on Facebook and by following the Twitter accounts of employees.

Diamond stud

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Voltas in talks to buy Wipro's water business

Electro-mechanical projects firm Voltas Ltd is in advanced talks to buy the water purification and treatment business of India's No.3 software services exporter, Wipro Ltd , The Times of India said, citing unnamed sources close to the development.

The soaps-to-software maker has mandated investment bank Anand Rathi to find a suitor for the water treatment business, which it entered about four years ago, the report said.

Voltas, a Tata group firm, may be looking at this acquisition to expand its water treatment business, which undertakes works for local civic bodies and for Tata group firms, the report said.

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Emirates On Track For 'Record' Year

Emirates said on Sunday that it had repaid a USD$500 million bond that was due this month and it is on course for a "record breaking" financial year. The bond, listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, was originally issued in 2004 with a seven year term. "The repayment of this bond is part of Emirates overall financing strategy," the airline's chairman and chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said in a statement. He said the airline would continue to use normal diverse range of options available to finance its growth. Emirates dropped plans for a bond to finance expansion after the uprisings in North Africa made rates more expensive, its president Tim Clark said earlier this month. The carrier is on track for another record breaking financial year, the company said in a statement. "The results for the first half of the 2010-11 financial year are incredibly robust," said Sheikh Ahmed.
"We continue to invest our profits in growing the business and our healthy financial position enables us to successfully meet all of our financial commitments and raise financing for future aircraft deliveries." He said that the 62 new aircraft ordered in the first half of 2010 will help the airline develop its growth plans. The Dubai-based airline last year announced a multi-billion dollar increase in its fleet to include 120 Airbus A380 super jumbos. Emirates is Dubai's flagship company and one of the biggest contributors to a local economy hit hard by a property crisis. The government-owned airline rivals longer established names for traffic between Europe and east Asia.

Eco-friendly Jet Fuel

In an RV nicknamed after an urban assault vehicle, scientists from NASA's Langley Research Center traveled cross-country this month for an experiment with eco-friendly jet fuel. NASA's DC-8 at Dryden Flight Research Center's Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. Credit: NASA Dryden/Tom Tschida The Langley team drove 2,600 miles (4,184 km) from Hampton, Va., to meet up with other researchers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

Researchers are testing the biofuel on a NASA DC-8 to measure its performance and emissions as part of the Alternative Aviation Fuel Experiment II, or AAFEX II. The fuel is called Hydrotreated Renewable Jet Fuel. "It's made out of chicken fat, actually," said Langley's Bruce Anderson, AAFEX II project scientist. "The Air Force bought many thousands of gallons of this to burn in some of their jets and provided about 8,000 gallons (30,283 liters) to NASA for this experiment." Anderson and his team will test a 50-50 mix of biofuel and regular jet fuel, biofuel only, and jet fuel only. The jet fuel is Jet Propellant 8, or JP-8, a kerosene-like mix of hydrocarbons.

Railways have nearly Rs 200-cr losses due to Jat agitation

The Northern Railway has registered losses nearly Rs 200 crore due to Jat agitation. The Jat community had blocked railway tracks and also stopped the movement of the trains. Although the exact figure hasn't been released yet. The Jat agitation is still continuing in the neighbouring states.

The freight traffic has witnessed major losses and the transportation of perishables and on-time performance of the railways has got impacted. Moreover, supply of commodities such as vegetables, milk, coal and petroleum products were affected heavily.The Railways has bagged quantitative and qualitative losses. On March 16, 66 trains were cancelled. The Jat community has further stated that they will block all rail links between the city and other cities such as Agra, Kanpur and Ambala, from March 28.

Air India Offers low cost Flights to India

Air India has announced its special flight fares for flights from London to various cities across the country.By using this offer, Air India customers can book flights to Mumbai from London Airport starting from fares between 220 to 250 GBP approx excl. taxes. Moreover, the national flagship carrier offers direct flights to Bombay hence making the journey more convenient and time saving. The other Indian cities included in this offer are Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmadabad, Kochi, Trivandrum and Goa flights.

Nokia Joins Forces With Microsoft to Challenge Apple, Google; Shares Slump

Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, said it’s forming a software corporation with Microsoft Corp, betting that together the two companies can challenge Google Inc. and Apple Inc.

Nokia fell as much as 12 percent, the biggest fall in a almost 10 months, after its plan to make Microsoft’s Windows its primary software was seen as a sign of the extent of its troubles taking on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms.

“It’s a clear admission that Nokia’s own platform strategy has faltered,” told Ben Wood, a London-based analyst with CCS Insight. “Microsoft is the big winner in this deal, but there are no silver bullets for either company given strength of iPhone and Android.”

Coke Sales Rise Globally

Coca-Cola Co. posted solid fourth-quarter worldwide sales growth and continued to take share from rival PepsiCo Inc. in the key North American market.

Coke's growth was fastest in emerging markets like India and Brazil, but the company is seeing stabilization in its biggest markets. In North America, sales volume in juices, sodas and all other beverages rose 3%, excluding the impact of acquisitions and foreign-currency translations. That was the third straight quarter the figure was up. Parts of Europe saw budding signs of recovery.

Significantly, Coke also saw its North American soda sales volume tick up for the third straight quarter, in defiance of a years-long slide across the industry as customers switched to water and other drinks for health and economic reasons.

Dollar falls against euro as China raises rates

The U.S. dollar fell to the euro in late trading Tuesday after China announced that it would increase rates. Investors have also become less worried about the unrest in Egypt, moving away from the dollar and looking to invest in riskier currencies.

China's central bank said Tuesday that it would increase deposit and lending interest rates by a quarter percentage point, the second time China has raised rates in over a month.

"It was expected, but the time was unknown," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotia Capital. "Investors are anticipating more interest rate hikes out of China."

Toyota Motor Q3 profit slumps, outlook lifted

October-December operating profit was 99.07 billion yen ($1.20 billion), down from 189.1 billion yen in the similar period a year earlier. Net profit fell 38.9 percent to 93.63 billion yen.

For the year to March 31 it lifted its working profit forecast to 550 billion yen ($6.68 billion) from 380 billion yen, after profits for the first nine months exceeded that figure.

It increased its global sales forecast to 7.48 million vehicles from 7.41 million, with domestic sales seen at 2.02 million vehicles compared with an earlier prediction of 1.99 million. Its U.S. forecast was unchanged at 2.09 million units

GLOBAL MARKETS: European Stocks Rise; Bullish Tone Exists

European stock markets push top Tuesday, with shares in London leading the way, as market participants are seemingly hopeful about the global economic outlook in the year ahead.

Equity markets are expected to trade powerfully through 2011 on a combination of multiple expansion and earnings growth, told Royal Bank of Scotland. It added that increasing optimism around the U.S. economy may contribute to pro-equity asset allocation flows, while in Europe, earnings-per-share growth could be just over 20%, as the global economy helps the top line, while domestic labor market slack ensures favorable unit labor cost trends persist.

"Our Stoxx Europe 600 year-end target of 320 implies circa 15% upside from present levels, and would see the market multiple rise to 12x 2011 earnings [currently around 11x]," added RBS.

Sony to Spend $1.2 Billion for Image Sensor Capacity

Sony Corp. will invest 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) over the next fiscal year to twice its production capacity for image sensors, as the company aims to expand output of the devices used in smartphones.

The maker of Cyber-shot cameras will buy back from Toshiba Corp. a factory making chips used in PlayStation 3 game consoles and convert the plant into an image-sensor production facility, Tokyo-based Sony said today in a statement. The company also plans to include equipment to an existing plant in Nagasaki, western Japan, to make high-quality image sensors, it said.

The investment follows a plan by Sony, disclosed in September, to spend 40 billion yen to boost output of so-called CMOS chips at a factory in Kumamoto prefecture. Japan’s largest exporter of consumer electronics aims to win a 30 percent share of shipments in the market for image sensors used in cell phones, compared with about 10 percent for the year ending March 2011, Yoko Yasukochi, a Sony spokeswoman, said by phone today.

Oracle wants $211 million in interest from SAP

Turning up the heat in a bitter legal dispute, software maker Oracle is asking a federal judge to order German rival SAP to give $211 million in interest on a record $1.3 billion jury award for software pirating.

Oracle filed the request Friday, saying the interest is necessary to "fully compensate" Oracle for the worth of software licenses that SAP should have purchased in 2005 and 2006.

SAP has already made a separate payment to Oracle of $120 million for its legal expenses, after acknowledging that an SAP subsidiary copied Oracle software without authorization. A federal jury decided previous month that SAP should pay what would have been the market value for licenses to use the software at the time, which the jury pegged at $1.3 billion.

Heinz profit beats estimates; sees more cash

Ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co (HNZ.N) posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by price increases and growth in emerging markets.

The company, which also makes Ore-Ida frozen potatoes and Smart Ones frozen entrees, affirmed its earnings outlook for the complete fiscal year but raised the target for how much free cash it expects to generate.

Profit in the second quarter, ended Oct. 27, was $251.4 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with $231.4 million, or 73 cents a share, a year previous.

Analysts on average were expecting 76 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales fell 1.2 percent to $2.61 billion, hurt by the impact of foreign exchange rates and falling short of analysts' expectations for $2.67 billion.

Sales volume increased 0.3 percent, driven by 2.6 percent growth in emerging markets. Cost increases lifted sales by 0.6 percent.

Heinz said it is still on track to deliver fiscal 2011 growth of 3 percent to 4 percent in sales and 7 percent to 10 percent in earnings per share. It raised its free cash flow target by 15 percent to $1.15 billion.

Top Democrat seeks small business tax form repeal

Senator Max Baucus, chairman of that chamber's tax-writing committee, said he would introduce legislation to repeal that part of the law, which requires filing so-called 1099 forms, after small business groups complained it would become a paperwork nightmare.

Republicans, who won control of the U.S. House of Representatives election and gained seats in the Senate in the recent elections, have vowed to try to repeal the entire healthcare law. They have also sought repeal of the 1099 provision separately.

Baucus noted that the change was originally proposed under former Republican President George W. Bush.

Baucus said he was convinced by business groups' complaints that it was an administrative burden.

"I have heard small businesses loud and clear and I am responding to their concerns," Baucus said in a statement.

Obama last week said that he would fight any attempt to repeal the legislation, but would be willing to consider some Republican ideas. He suggested the two sides work together to change the new business transaction reporting requirement.

Intel plans 1,000 high-tech jobs in 2 states

Intel announced Tuesday that is investing up to $8 billion in microchip manufacturing plants that could create up to 1,000 permanent high-tech jobs in Arizona and Oregon.

Intel said it will spend between $6 billion and $8 billion to fund a new development fabrication plants in Oregon and to upgrade four existing plants in Oregon and Arizona. The plants will manufacture "next-generation" 22-nanometer microprocessors, or chips, the company said.

The company said this will support the creation of 800 to 1,000 permanent high-tech jobs as well as 6,000 to 8,000 construction jobs.

Intel also said the investment will allow it "to maintain its current manufacturing employment at these U.S. sites."

Intel spokeswoman Lisa Malloy said the new plant will be built in Hillsboro, Ore., near Portland, where the company already has a significant presence. Of the four plants slated for upgrade, two are in Hillsboro and two are in the greater Phoenix area.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., said it generates three quarters of its revenue from overseas markets, but employs three quarters of its chip-making employees in the United States.

"It does cost a bit more to build one of these factories from scratch in the U.S.," Intel chief executive Paul Otellini told CNN's Ali Velshi in a live interview.

But he said labor costs are not the main problem -- grants from foreign countries are the biggest incentives for U.S. companies to build factories overseas. He said the U.S. government should offer more incentives to build plants in America.

Google nears $600

Shares of Google opened up 10% Friday morning, and came within striking distance of $600 for the first time in more than nine months, after the company posted solid quarterly earnings that impressed investors.

Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) stock rose as much as $58.42 to $599.35 a share in early morning trading, before sliding back a bit. It was the stock's highest level since January.

Late Thursday, Google reported a third-quarter profit that rose 32% on the back of stronger search ad fees from advertisers. But the company's results were also buoyed by its non-core businesses, like YouTube, display advertising and mobile.

Google defied skeptical investors and analysts who feared that the search giant would never find a a significant new revenue stream besides search advertisements. In the past, the company has been tight-lipped about the financial details of its non-search businesses, leading some analysts to speculate that those product lines were insignificant to the company's overall revenue.

For instance, Google has made tremendous headway in mobile. Its Android operating system will command 17.7% of the global mobile device market by year's end, according to a Gartner forecast, making it the second best-selling smartphone operating system, behind Nokia's (NOK) Symbian OS and ahead of Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iOS. That's stunning, considering it entered the market just two years ago.

Google said its mobile advertising business was doing sales of $1 billion on an annualized basis. Display advertising, which includes images rather than textual ads, is on pace to be a $2.5 billion business annually. The company said its display business is likely the third largest in the world, behind AOL (AOL) and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500).

Investors had slammed Google's stock this year, sending it down by as much as 30%. Shares started to rebound in September, but were still down 13% before Friday's market open. But Google's impressive quarterly numbers sent shares soaring, and the stock is now down just 4% for the year.

President Obama hails New York teens' life-saving business ideas

President Obama honored two New York teens on Tuesday who are using their business skills to save lives.

Steven Gordon, 18, of Brooklyn, and Nia Froome, 17, of Valley Stream, L.I., are among the winners of the 2010 Oppenheimer Funds/Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, which encourages kids from poorer communities to pursue careers in business.

Gordon founded TattooID when he learned that 1.3 million children are reported missing each year.

After taking a two-week business seminar at Columbia University, Gordon came up with the idea for the "TattooID," a temporary tattoo stamped on the hand or arm of children with their initials and contact information.

"I got the idea for the tattoos one day thinking about my little brother and wondering what would we do if we ever lost him," Gordon said.

"It's an unbelievable honor to meet the President - not something I ever expected. I mean, I'm from Brooklyn, ya know," chirped the Hunter College freshman, who has made about $200 so far from the idea.

Froome, who attends Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, learned how to cook vegan dishes about 10 years ago when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She was told a vegan diet could slow the growth of cancer cells. Froome took a decade of her experience in the kitchen and turned it into Mamma Nia's Vegan Bakery.

Wal-Mart to start selling Apple's iPad

Wal-Mart said the iPad will be available in hundreds of its stores in the United States to start, expanding to more than 2,300 outlets by mid-November.

Wal-Mart rivals Best Buy and Target are already selling the iPad, which Apple launched in April.

Demand for the 10-inch touchscreen tablet has so far been robust, and Apple initially had a difficult time producing enough.

The company sold more than 3 million iPads in the June quarter, and Wall Street expects the company to surpass that mark with ease in the September quarter.

Apple is set to report quarterly results next Monday.

Wal-Mart will sell the iPad for the same price as other retailers, starting at $499 for the more inexpensive model. The world's largest retailer already sells Apple's iPod and iPhone.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple were up $1.75 at $297.11 in midday trading on the Nasdaq.