Business Leap Frontier

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon has vowed a new trade offer between Mexico and Brazil. He proposed it in Sao Paulo during meeting business leaders. Calderon ensured he would discuss to industry, social and political groups in his country to change the trade between the two countries.

Brazil and Mexico both countries are Latin America’s largest economies. The countries are presently responsible for about 70 percent of all economic activities in this region. Mexico already has trade agreements with Canada and USA. The country has struggled with recessionary trends at home as well as abroad. It sends 80 percent of its exports to USA and the country has been mostly exposed to the US fall in customer spending.

The unemployment rate in USA has dropped surprisingly in July. Experts consider it as   one of the strongest signs so far that the worst economic recession and think the Great Depression might be ending. However, around 14.5 million citizens are still jobless in the USA. Employers dismissed 247,000 jobs in July. The amount is less than forecasters had expected.

Labor Department reported on Friday revealed the unemployment rate decline to 9.4% July, compared to 9.5% in June. The statistics said that for the first time unemployment rate has slumped since April 2008.  President Barack Obama said a $787 billion economic stimulus plan is taken and it would be signed within few months of taking office to stop the downturn from getting worse. Nonetheless, there is a warning of a fragile job market.

British Airways (BA) received a profit of £37 million during the three months to the end of June 2008 but for the same period of this year the airliner has got a pre-tax loss of around £148 million. The BBC reported that chief executive of British Airways Willie Walsh said the very tough year for airlines and made trading conditions particularly challenging with passengers curb on spending.

Walsh told traffic amounts are starting to get stable and demonstrate several signs of progress for the peak European summer session. The airliner has already cut capital expenses by 20 percent this year. However, British Airways ( BA ) faces likely industrial action on its efforts to shrink costs as well as staffing numbers.

The world’s biggest casino operator Las Vegas Sands (LVS) is to issue adaptable bonds to boost up to $400 million. These coupons can provide an interest of up to 16 percent. According to a Chinese news paper reports Goldman Sachs has been hired to advice on this issue. It also reports a potential local listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The steps could indicate Las Vegas Sands skim off its Asian assets.

The fund from theses convertible bonds issue is subject to guarantee the continual development of the group’s Macau spreading out. The company possesses and runs the Venetian Macao Resort-Hotel as well as the Sands Macao in Macau. Moreover, the company is creating the Cotai Strip with feature roughly 21,000 rooms aligned with hotel brands for example St. Regis, Sheraton, Hilton, Conrad, Shangri-La, Traders, Fairmont, Raffles, Inter Continental and Holiday Inn. In a word, it is a master-planned and organized development of resort-casino assets in Macau. Additionally, Nevada-based the Las Vegas Company owns and runs The Palazzo Resort-Hotel-Casino, The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. It also owns and operates the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Eastern Pennsylvania and the Four Seasons Hotel Macao. LVS is also mounting the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort in Singapore.

LVS has held up well in spite of the global recession. The company’s revenue & profit has dropped but only modestly. Statistics say, net revenue for the 2nd quarter was around $1.06 billion. It was a shrink of 4.8 percent compared to $1.11 billion in the 2nd quarter of last year.