Panasonic, the leading global manufacturer of consumer electronics, announced the launch of its 65-inch plasma TV, the TH-65PV500, at a press conference at the Jeddah Hilton recently. Speaking at the event, Wataru Yokogawa, managing director, Panasonic Marketing Middle East — Saudi Arabia said, “Panasonic is totally committed to Plasma technology and testimony to this is the introduction of Viera 65 inch plasma television in the Middle-east today. Launch of this Viera 65-inch television is a significant milestone for Panasonic, as we look to further enhance our production capacity and manufacture plasma television with larger screen sizes. Plasma technology is the future of television, both globally and regionally and Panasonic aims to be the largest plasma television manufacturer in the world.” Tanigawa Ryuchiro, general manager consumer products at Panasonic Marketing Middle East -Saudi Arabia. said, “ We have capitalized on our expertise in developing and mass-producing the 65-inch plasma televisions with spectacular entertainment features like vibrant pictures, outstanding sound, networking, design and usability. The TH-65PV500 reaffirms Panasonic’s standing as premier provider of flat screen television.”
INVESTCORP
Investment experts from the World Bank, McKinsey & Co., the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), Bahrain, the Public Authority For Social Insurance (PASI), Oman and Investcorp took the stage this week at a Social Security and Pension Fund Workshop in Manama, jointly organized by GOSI, Bahrain and Investcorp. Dr. Michal Rutkowski, director for human development in the Middle East and North Africa region at the World Bank told the senior officials attending from some 20 social security and pension funds organizations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Levant and Southeast Asia, that improving asset performance could be a much more politically viable alternative to other measures such as increasing contributions or reducing benefits. Professionalizing investment functions was what would achieve such improvements. Key to this was that fund administrators should ensure that the oversight function was separate from the investment and implementation function. Gary Long, Investcorp’s chief operating officer, explained that social security and pension funds around the world were increasing their allocations to alternative investments. The growing popularity of alternative investments, he said, followed the market collapse of the 1990s that caused them to question the rationale of concentrating their investment portfolios solely in “traditional” asset classes such as equities and bonds. They saw the benefit of diversifying by investing in “alternative” asset classes such as private equity, real estate, venture capital and hedge funds.
STARWOOD
Starwood Hotels & Resorts hosted its road show at Westin Jeddah on Sunday, which brought together over 40 experts from Starwood hotels worldwide. “With a 21 percent growth in revenue per available room, the Middle East was the top performing region in the world in 2005 for the second year in a row,” Ahmed A. Baki, Starwood’s Middle East director of marketing, said. “Growth was fueled by a 23 percent increase in average room rates which soared to $117 compared to $95 in 2004,” he said, adding that hotels’ occupancy continues to be at an all time high at nearly 70 percent. “Following the robust performance of Starwood operations, we managed to achieve another remarkable milestone in 2005 with the acquisition of the Le Meridien brand for the portfolio of 130 hotels and resorts globally.”
ME/SONY
The “training” phase of the Sony Creative Science Awards 2006, the second edition of the community initiative of Modern Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Gulf FZE, conducted in joint coordination with the Jeddah Science & Technology Center (JSTC), was held recently. This initial training phase was met with a good response from the staff of the Ministry of Education (MOE) with over 50 teachers trained by specialists from Singapore. “We believe that the training phase of these awards is the most significant aspect of the entire initiative,” Modern Electronics Co. General Manager Takuzo Fujimoto, said. “During this phase, we could directly reach more than 600 instructors from MOE, JSTC, and schools with our message of using creative techniques to inculcate scientific curiosity among children.”
EITC
The Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC) public share sale was 167 times oversubscribed with total applications of more than 400 billion dirhams. According to investment banker EFG-Hermes, this is the “largest amount collected in the history of IPO’s in the UAE.” More than 225,000 investors have applied for shares including about 15,000 UAE national teachers, who will each receive 3,000 shares under the directives of Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al-Maktoum, UAE vice president and prime minister and ruler of Dubai. The allocation of shares to other UAE national investors has yet to be completed, pending finalization of the audit of applications and may be announced later this month.
MOBILY
Mobily launched a major promotion for its prepaid customers on Saturday. The new campaign is similar to a previous one and is applicable to all prepaid cards used by Mobily subscribers, except “Rihal” package, used mainly during Haj and Umrah. The promotion can be utilized using the scratch cards, the M-Pay machines for recharging cards and recharging via banks online websites. Customers, during the promotion, can recharge as much as they want. Even those who bought the scratch cards before the promotion period will benefit from the promotion if they use them during the promotion period. However, customers buying scratch cards during the promotion period and using them after the end date will not benefit from the recharge bonus. The promotion ends on April 7.