Chávez rattles his sabre at Polar – but is he serious this time?
Not for the first time, Hugo Chávez today threatened to nationalise the country’s largest remaining privately owned company, food and drink giant Polar. He raised the stakes a bit, too, by declaring “economic war” against the “bourgeoisie” at the same time.
Can he really be serious? To be fair, for Venezuela’s pugnacious leader, this is pretty standard fare. But, increasingly, people are beginning to wonder whether he might actually take the plunge, and grab Polar.
New rival emerges in Colombian election: the World Cup
Juan Manuel Santos and Antanas Mockus are facing a new foe as they race to the finish in Colombia’s presidential campaign – World Cup football.
June 20 will be the day Colombians decide who will succeed Álvaro Uribe, the president credited with restoring security to many parts of the country amid a 45-year war against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
But it is also the day Brazil takes on Ivory Coast and Paraguay plays Slovakia, making it even less likely that the 51 per cent of voters who abstained in the first round will get out of their armchairs.
Kimberly-Clark takes aim at Russian nappy market
Kimberly-Clark, the US paper products and consumer goods company, officially opened its first manufacturing plant in Russia on Wednesday, signaling its commitment to expand the market share of its Huggies nappies in the market and to challenge its larger rival Procter & Gamble.
Bob Black, head of Kimberly-Clark’s international division, told the Financial Times that the company had invested around $170m in the 400,000 sq-ft plant, located in the town of Stupino near Moscow. The 100-acre site includes space for further expansion.
Americas markets wrap: Brazil and Mexico upbeat on US housing data
Latin American stocks and currencies rallied today as the outlook for global recovery was boosted by better-than-expected US housing data.
“In terms of the economy, the next three quarters will be slower than the past two quarters but no double dip,” Antoine van Agtmael, chairman and chief investment officer of Emerging Markets Management, told Bloomberg Television. “In emerging markets, we are already past the worst point of this year.”
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has signaled its continued interest in establishing stores in Russia, albeit in a characteristically unusual way.
At its annual staff gathering at its northwest Arkansas HQ, a brief segment on Russia was added to the international staff presentations on their home markets, which are regularly embellished with songs, chanting and dances. Russia’s contribution was supported by a traditional folk dancing troupe, with remarks on efforts in the country delivered by Marie Gill, a Walmart executive, who appeared in red and gold traditional costume.
Vitro trading suspended in latest chapter of glassmaker’s woes
The problems at Vitro, the Mexican glassmaker, refuse to go away. Today, the Mexican Stock Exchange suspended trading in the company’s shares after it missed a deadline for filing its fully audited earnings for 2009. The exchange said that trading in its bonds was also suspended.
This latest twist in the Vitro saga comes after a calamitous 2009 which, among other things, saw the Monterrey-based company default on $1.5bn of debt in February following an ill-fated excursion into derivatives.
Add to that a vertiginous fall in demand for glass during the global economic recession last year, and a longer-term trend of increasing competition in the production of flat glass, once the company’s core business, and you have all the basic elements of a horror story.
CEE market wrap-up: Wall Street open boosts markets for a second day
Central and eastern European markets reenacted yesterday’s script, with markets opening in the red only to be boosted in the afternoon by better-than-expected US macroeconomic data and stronger US markets. Currencies were mainly flat in the afternoon against a strengthened euro. Despite continued fears about the state of eurozone debt, central bankers polled by Reuters in Russia, Brazil and Japan said they would continue to invest in euro assets.
Rolls-Royce changes gear in China
It hardly ranks as 
news that carmakers have been chopping and changing their cars for China – or even designing models expressly for the world’s biggest vehicle market.
Many of these, like a made-for-China long-wheelbase version of BMW’s 5-Series executive car, have been decidedly old-school. China’s big men favour large saloons – a culturally embedded preference, of the days when emperors were transported on sedan chairs above the hoi polloi – in “stretch” versions spacious enough to accommodate chauffeurs.
But here’s a new wrinkle on that old trope: Rolls-Royce say that they are aiming for a fresher, more youthful brand image worldwide – largely because of the Chinese market.
Brussels to Beijing: more exports please
File under “counterintuitive”.
The WTO staff’s biennial survey of Chinese trade policy (discussed at the WTO on Monday, but the document was only publicly released today), had a lot of rude things to say about Beijing’s system of export taxes and restraints, particularly the ones on raw materials.
Emirates Telecommunications is in talks with Reliance Communications over a 26 per cent stake in India’s second largest mobile company by subscribers, the FT reports.
One person familiar with the talks said the deal would value the stake at about $4bn, but added that Etisalat was only one of several companies that have approached Reliance.
Can India keep on outperforming?
Indian stocks have been enjoying a better European crisis than other emerging markets, writes Ridham Desai in today’s FT. But will it last?
We have argued over the past few years that India’s key vulnerability arises from the manner in which its current account deficit is funded, i.e., through flows sourced from financial markets. This came to the fore during the 2008 global financial crisis and Indian equities were among the worst performing in the world in that year.
When the European sovereign debt crisis came to the surface, it seemed inevitable that Indian equities would lead the sell off in global equities. However, surprisingly Indian shares have outperformed emerging market and global equities.
This is not something many market participants would have predicted.
To read the full article, click here.
The Iberian battle for Brazil’s Vivo continues
The quarrel between Portugal Telecom and Spain’s Telefónica over the paternity rights to Vivo, Brazil’s largest mobile phone operator, appears almost certain to end in divorce following an increased offer from the Spanish group. And a newly-single Portugal Telecom could soon be looking for a fresh relationship in Latin America.
Weather gods frown on Tata
The day that Ratan Tata opened a new factory dedicated to the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, was supposed to be a day of triumph.
On Wednesday morning, before hundreds of people gathered in a temporary hall at the new factory in Sanand, Gujarat state, Tata told of how two years ago he had to relocate the Nano factory from West Bengal.
New York headlines
*Thailand leaves interest rates unchanged
*Yen weakens as Hatoyama resigns
*Production resumes at Honda plant
*Foxconn says it will raise wages 30%
*Agricultural Bank of China may scale back IPO
*Telefónica raises bid in Vivo dispute
*UAE firm Etisalat in talks to buy Reliance Communications stake
*Reliance Industries said to be considering coal deal
*TPG dealmaker quits to launch Asia fund
*US puts steep final duties on China steel gratings
*China tightens controls on rare earths
*Markets: Asia mixed
Papua New Guinea’s government has upset conservationists, landowners and parliamentarians after amending environmental laws last Friday that will make it harder to prosecute mining projects that damage the environment.
Tiffany Nonggorr, a lawyer representing close to 1,000 landowners, including those opposed to China Metallurgical Group’s US$1.4bn Ramu nickel mine, said the changes meant landowners had lost the right to sue for negligence.
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