Adidas takes a new project for Bangladesh

German sport-goods giant Adidas has under taken a project to produce low-cost trainers for poor buyers, a London-based newspaper reported on Tuesday. Quoting an Adidas spokesman, the newspaper stated that the project was undertaken after being convinced by the noble laureate and founder of Grameen Bank, Mohammad Yunus. Jan Runau, the Adidas spokesman, told Daily Telegraph that an agreement had been signed to begin production of the shoes in Bangladesh next year. He, however, said that the project was at an early stage and it had not yet been decided whether the shoes would carry the Adidas tag. Jan also said Adidas is to make trainers [active shoes] at the price of one Euro per pair for millions of people around the world who can not afford to buy shoes. Pilot production would begin next year in Bangladesh, he said. Adidas usually makes expensive footwear and celebrity sponsorship but, according to the Telegraph, [Bangladesh] project was inspired by Muhammad Yunus, the pioneer of micro-loans which help the poor start their own businesses. He [Yunus] told the company [Adidas], which has been criticised for exploitation in the developing world, that Bangladesh needed 'social businesses' which would create jobs in the country. 'It is correct that Adidas Group in conjunction with Muhammad Yunus aims to put such shoes on the market,' he said. 'The company has now agreed it will produce shoes in Bangladesh on a non-profit basis, although a spokesman stressed the final price may be higher than the €1 (89 pence) target.' The Telegraph wrote. Adidas pays former England football captain David Beckham £3 million per year as a brand ambassador and to use his name to promote their Predator football boots, which sell for £130 a pair. It spent a reported £50 million to sponsor the Beijing Olympics last year and has pledged a further £100 million for the London Olympics in 2012. He said it had not yet been decided whether the shoes would carry the Adidas brand or its trademark three stripes design, 'Key decisions on design and branding have yet to be finalized.'

Citi bank NA said they give 150 crore farm loan for Bangladeshi fa rmars

Country's first ever syndicated agricultural term loan facility of Tk 150 crore, arranged by the Citibank, NA, was delivered to Buro Bangladesh, a leading micro finance institution. The 5-year loan facility has been provided to support expansion of BURO's micro- lending to the agriculture sector. The other banks, participated in the fund, are Agrani, Dutch-Bangla, Eastern, Janata, Mutual Trust, Prime, Pubali, Sonali, Southeast, Standard, City and United Commercial bank. Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman handed over the fund to Buro at a function in the city Tuesday. Mamun Rashid, Managing Director and Citi Country Officer- Bangladesh said the syndicated agricultural loan, which would provide million of farmers with loans, was yet another milestone in bankers' partnership with the microfinance sector. Zakir Hossain, Executive Director of BURO said, his organisation was committed to help farmers in ensuring food security of the country.

A Bangladeshi tiles making company marketing a new design

Great Wall Ceramic Industries Ltd, a local tiles maker, yesterday announced a new high-end product to catch up with rising demand on the local market. "As demand for costly tiles is high, we want to manufacture and supply it to the local market," said an official of the company at a press conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka. The company will manufacture and supply large- sized, fine-cut tiles with decorated borders to meet local demand, SM Shajahan, assistant general manager, told the function. Great Wall has recently enhanced its production capacity to 13 ,500 square-metre a day from 8 , 000 square-metre. The new product will be unveiled at a function in Dhaka on Thursday. A total of 10 local and foreign companies produce tiles in the country to produce 1.5 lakh square- metres of tiles a day against local demand of four lakh square metres a day, the press meet was told. The remaining is imported. Asif Iqbal Mahmud, director of Great Wall Ceramic, was also present at the function.

Bangladeshi footwear exporter sees new hope in their export

Leather footwear exports are expected to turn around in two months as the shocks of recession are easing in parts of the world. Exporters are trying to increase product quality and make prompt delivery to get more work orders from abroad. Simultaneously, they have moved to diversify products to attract new buyers, said industry leaders yesterday. Local leather footwear and bag exports slowed in July-September, mainly due to the delayed effects of the global financial meltdown. In the July-September period of 2009 , leather footwear exports stood at $56.22 million, which was a 3 percent decline from last year's figures, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data. Leather bag and purse exports have also slowed with sold products worth $4 million during the period, a rise of 5.56 percent from a year ago, although they failed to reach the export target set by the government. But growth in exports of leather bags and purses was more than 90 percent in the April-June period. Industry insiders said the global financial meltdown has had a delayed effect on demand for finished leather and leather goods that caused a decline in exports. But the decline will not continue for long, as developed markets demand low-cost footwear, bags and purses, industry leaders said. Syed Nasim Manzur, managing director of Apex- Adelchi Footwear Ltd, said footwear exports declined as a result of global recession that affected consumer expenditure on fashion accessories, like footwear and bags. "Export earnings were satisfactory even three months back, but it dropped in September, mainly because of the delayed effects of global recession on demand for luxury fashion accessories," he said. "Another reason for the decline in exports is the seasonality factor. We take orders twice a year and produce different products in different seasons -- for example, sandals for spring and boots for winter." "Every time we go for new orders, we have to change the entire factory set-up that slows local production initially," Manzur explained. "But we are trying to smooth the transition further." He also said the situation will get better in coming months. "There is demand for our products on international markets, as we produce high quality products and many countries such as Italy have stopped producing high quality shoes." The market size of Bangladeshi-made leather footwear stands at around Tk 1 ,700 crore, of which about 45 percent is exported. The country exports around six million pairs of leather footwear a year. Apex-Adelchi Footwear Ltd is the country's leading footwear exporter, claiming more than half of total exports. The company earned Tk 450 crore last year. Exports of leather bags and purses have also slowed mainly due to lower work order flow during this period. Earlier, the bag exports have risen by more than 90 percent from September 2008. "We still have a little growth in exports of items like bag and purse, but the flow of work orders have slowed by 50 percent in recent months. Our present growth figures are resultant of the orders we received at least 8-10 months back," said Ashikur Rahman, managing director of Rahman Leather Bangladesh, a Hazaribagh based leather bag exporter. "The main reason behind the slower growth is the lack of consistent work orders. Yet we don't have old and loyal customers abroad, as we are quite new in exporting bags in a large scale," he said adding, "We still get orders from newer and irregular buyers." The annual market size for leather bags and purses stands around Tk 100 crore. Meanwhile, Rezaul Karim Ansari, chairman of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather Goods and Footwear Exporters Association, demanded government support to enhance export performance.

Indian Reliance group now looks in oil industry

Indian energy giant Reliance Industries will launch an "aggressive" oil and gas exploration campaign over the next three years, its chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders on Tuesday. "We have planned an aggressive exploration campaign (for the oil sector) in the next three years," Ambani said in a statement issued by the company after its annual general meeting. "This will take Reliance to a higher growth trajectory." Last week, Reliance announced it had struck oil in the Cambay basin in western India, marking its 43 rd discovery in India. The fuel-hungry nation, which imports 70 percent of its oil needs, has been racing to discover new sources of energy to power its fast-growing economy. In the financial year ended March 2009 , Reliance announced the first flow of crude from the company's deep-sea oil and gas field in the Bay of Bengal off eastern India. Oil production began in September last year in a sector of the Krishna Godavari basin with an initial flow of 5 ,000 barrels a day. Gas production started in April at the same basin, which is among the five largest deepwater gas projects in the world.

US billionaire Warren Buffett unvail new investment project

US billionaire Warren Buffett's investment firm has revealed new stakes in Nestle and Exxon Mobil. Berkshire Hathaway said it held 3.4 million American depositary receipts - which represents shares in foreign companies - of Nestle, worth $144.7 m. It also reported owning 1.28 million shares in the oil giant Exxon Mobil, valued at $87.6 m. Stock picks by Mr Buffett are watched closely as he is considered to be one of the world's greatest investors. The disclosures were made in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Berkshire Hathaway also revealed that it had nearly doubled its stake in Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. While Nestle, Exxon and Wal-Mart are all household names, their shares have lagged the broader US stock market in recent months. Mr Buffett is known for buying even when economic conditions are weak, and one of his sayings is: "It is far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price." The SEC filing also showed that Berkshire Hathaway had reduced its stakes in oil company ConocoPhillips and credit ratings agency Moody's.

AIG banks paid too much

Regulators involved in the rescue of AIG may have overpaid other banks when cutting a deal, a report says. The New York Fed paid AIG's business partners face value for securities so they would cancel insurance-like contracts AIG had written. But officials used a weak negotiating strategy, Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky's report said. AIG was initially bailed out for $85 bn (£50 bn), but its total rescue package eventually amounted to over $180 bn. The report criticised both the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the US Federal Reserve for failing to use their "considerable leverage" to force AIG's counterparties to accept less than the full amount for the assets. As a result, 16 banks, including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale and Royal Bank of Scotland, were paid more than $62 bn. The initial bail-out "was done with almost no independent consideration of the terms of the transaction or the impact that those terms might have on the future of AIG", the report said. It also criticised the New York Fed, chaired at the time by current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, for insisting that all banks be treated equally in negotiations and for not treating US banks differently from foreign institutions. 'Extraordinary circumstances' The New York Fed and Federal Reserve Board issued a joint letter to accompany the report. "We believe that the Federal Reserve acted appropriately in conducting these negotiations and that our negotiating strategy, including the decision to treat all counterparties equally, was not flawed or unreasonably limited," the letter said. The Treasury Department said that the report overlooked "the central lesson" learned from the AIG rescue. "The lesson is that the federal government needs better tools to deal with the impending failure of a large institution in extraordinary circumstances like those facing us last fall," a Treasury spokeswoman said. She also called for the approval of an Obama administration proposal for new powers to step in and shut such firms down.

Aircraft A380 will cary 840 passenger each flight

Budget flights using the world's largest aircraft are planned, which will carry 840 people on each flight. Air Austral, based on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, has ordered two economy- only versions of Airbus's giant A380 airplane. The flights, planned for between Paris and Reunion from 2014 , will carry the most people to date in a single plane. Other carriers that bought the A380 have focused on luring premium business customers. "We are convinced that airplanes with good priced tickets will help explode traffic figures," Air Austral president Gerard Etheve said. The A380 can sit 525 people in the standard three-class structure used on most long-distance flights, or up to 853 in all-economy journeys. Mr Etheve said the airline he founded in 1975 had paid less than the $660 m (£393 m) list price for two Airbus A380 s.

Obama's administration has set up a finance task force

US President Barack Obama's administration has set up a task force to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. Led by the US justice department, the group will involve several government bodies and regulators working together. The body replaces a corporate fraud task force set up by President George W Bush's administration in 2002. Regulators had been criticised for failing to prevent Bernard Madoff's $65 bn (£40 bn) investment scheme fraud. Attorney General Eric Holder said the new body also aimed to prevent any future financial meltdown, following last year's economic crisis. Combining resources He said: "We will be relentless in our investigation of corporate and financial wrongdoing and we will not hesitate to bring charges, where appropriate, for criminal misconduct on the part of businesses and business executives." Mr Holder said this body would be far bigger than the one set up by the Bush administration seven years ago in the wake of the collapse of Enron Corp. It will include state investigators as well as federal agencies combining resources. The body is set to meet for the first time within the next 30 days. Mr Holder said the group would learn from the case of former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin. The US justice department lost its case against the pair last week when they were cleared of fraud by a New York jury. In March last year, Bear Stearns became one of the most high-profile victims of the credit crunch, after American banking giant JP Morgan agreed to buy it with the backing of the US Federal Reserve.

General Motors' may not be cut job form their Vauxhall factories

General Motors' head of operations in Europe has suggested job losses at its two Vauxhall factories in the UK may not be as bad as initially feared. Nick Reilly met Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and the Unite union. It was the first face-to-face meeting between GM bosses and ministers since the US firm decided not to sell Opel, including Vauxhall, earlier this month. Mr Reilly said there may be a chance to "quite significantly" reduce the 800 job cuts previously expected. Canadian car-parts maker Magna, which had agreed to buy Opel, had originally estimated 800 job losses in the UK as part of its takeover plans. GM has indicated it plans to cut as many as 10 , 000 jobs in Europe. Meeting reactions Mr Reilly told the BBC that the company was unsure about whether it would shut entire plants. "We need to reduce capacity overall in the 20 % area," he said. Mr Reilly also expects Opel to return to profitability by 2011. Lord Mandelson wanted to discuss GM's intentions for the Luton and Ellesmere Port Vauxhall factories. They employ 5 ,500 people and GM has described them as "lean and efficient". After the meeting he said the government would give some loans to GM, though it had not decided on the amounts. The Unite union did not discuss its meeting with Mr Reilly. GM first said in March that it wanted to sell Opel when the US firm entered a period of bankruptcy protection that eventually saw it emerge with the US government as its biggest shareholder. GM agreed to sell the brands to Magna in September, but it cancelled the sale earlier this month citing "an improving business environment for GM over the past few months". Opel employs a total of 54 ,000 workers across Europe, with 25 ,000 based in Germany.