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Saturday, 25 May

Expresso

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Jornal de Negocios

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The Economist

  • Dairy deals in China: Uh-oh, Danone

    pdiv class=content-image-full img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20130525_WBP003_0.jpg alt= title= width=595 height=335 / span class='caption'Can you find the safe one?/span /div“A COUNTRY like this can put a satellite into space but it can’t put a safe bottle teat into a child’s mouth.” So declares Ai Weiwei, China’s most famous dissident artist. His latest provocative work (pictured), part of an exhibition which opened on May 17th in Hong Kong, is a map of China made up of 1,800 tins of baby-milk powder.Even in a country used to food-safety scandals—the latest include poisonous rice, ginger laced with pesticide and rat meat masquerading as lamb—dairy is a sensitive topic. In 2008 six children died and tens of thousands were made ill by local milk powder tainted with melamine (added to boost the apparent protein content). Subsequent scandals involving fresh and powdered milk have shattered confidence in domestic firms.Many have turned to imported dairy products, but suppliers simply cannot keep up. Well-heeled mums and opportunistic middlemen have also tried smuggling in huge quantities of milk powder, but resultant shortages abroad have led to a backlash, and to purchase limits as far away as Ireland. Get caught leaving Hong Kong with three tins of milk powder and you may go to jail. So.../p

  • Soccer in America: City to city

    pON MAY 25th Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees baseball team, is due to be the stage for a football (soccer) match between Chelsea and Manchester City, two English Premier League clubs. Four days before the game, the Yankees and the Manchester club announced they were joining forces to create a new soccer team in the Big Apple. New York City Football Club will make its debut in 2015.Manchester City have reportedly been in talks with Major League Soccer (MLS), America’s premier league, since last year. MLS has been looking to go from 19 to 20 teams for some time, but expansion is not cheap. The fee is said to be $100m. Manchester City will be the majority owner of the new New York team. The Yankees, one of the most valuable global sporting franchises, are said to be putting up about a quarter of the cost. Coaching staff and players will criss-cross the Atlantic, but the goal is to build a competitive team in New York. A healthy rivalry will be fostered with the New York Red Bulls, who are based across the Hudson in New Jersey.The MLS has a mixture of home-grown and foreign players, mostly at the end of their careers. David Beckham, an English star, spent five years at LA Galaxy. His arrival in America boosted the sport enormously. More high-schoolers play soccer than baseball. Attendance at MLS matches, which was 5% higher last season than in 2011, is higher than.../p

  • Video games: Battle of the boxes

    pdiv class=content-image-full img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20130525_WBP004_0.jpg alt= title= width=595 height=335 / /divVIDEO games are big money-spinners. According to DFC Intelligence, a market-research firm, the industry was worth almost $80 billion in 2012 (combining software, gaming revenue and devices), or roughly the same as the film industry’s takings. Although gaming on smartphones, tablets and social-networking sites is growing fast, dedicated games consoles still dominate the business.div class=content-image-float-290 img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/290-width/images/print-edition/20130525_WBC683.png alt= title= width=290 height=299 / /divSo much anticipation surrounded Microsoft’s unveiling, on May 21st, of a new version of its Xbox. Its existing consoles (the original Xbox, launched in 2001, and the Xbox 360, in 2005) are a success story for a company squeezed by falling PC sales, a difficult move into the mobile-phone business and a limp welcome for the latest version of its flagship Windows operating system. Whereas Microsoft’s total revenues grew by 8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2013, the revenues of its entertainment and devices division, dominated by gaming, rose by 33%. At $2.2 billion, they were 11% of the.../p

  • Internet mergers and takeovers: Platforms upon platforms

    pBLOGGERS worried that Yahoo could stifle the youthful, rebellious spirit of Tumblr, a blogging service that it bought for $1.1 billion on May 20th, might want to keep an eye on whether Tumblr’s boss, David Karp, is asked to tone down his language. In a message on his firm’s staff blog this week, Mr Karp stressed that the deal with Yahoo would leave Tumblr with plenty of independence—“We’re not turning purple,” he wrote, referring to the corporate colour scheme of its new owner—before signing off with a distinctly uncorporate: “Fuck yeah, David.”It is not surprising that Yahoo’s purchase has unnerved many Tumblr users. After all, the internet giant has a record of buying promising young tech firms such as Delicious, an online-bookmarking service, and GeoCities, which hosts websites, and then neglecting them. The rich price paid for Tumblr, which reportedly made just $13m of revenue last year, is also fuelling doubts about the deal. According to an estimate by John Saroff, a former Google executive, Tumblr would need to generate at least $108m of revenue a year to return more than the opportunity cost of the capital that Yahoo is tying up in it.Why is Yahoo willing to take such a risk? Part of the answer is that, like an ageing rocker, it hopes being associated with younger stars will make it look cool again. It is also hoping to emulate Google, which snapped up YouTube, a.../p

  • The defence industry: Guns and sugar

    pdiv class=content-image-full img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20130525_WBD001_0.jpg alt= title= width=595 height=335 / /divIMAGINE that Apple could sell iPhones in Brazil only if it ploughed 20% of its projected revenues there into local technology firms. That may sound absurd, but this is what happens when governments buy arms from foreign contractors. In procurement it is standard to supplement the main deal with a side contract, usually undisclosed, that outlines additional investments that the winning bidder must make in local projects or else pay a penalty. Welcome to the murky world of “offsets”.The practice came of age in the 1950s, when Dwight Eisenhower forced West Germany to buy American-made defence gear to compensate for the costs of stationing troops in Europe. Since then it has grown steadily and is now accepted practice in 120 countries. It has its own industry newsletter and feeds a lively conference circuit. The latest jamboree, hosted by the Global Offset and Countertrade Association, was held this week in Florida. Defence executives, officials and middlemen gathered there amid forecasts that the industry could double in size over the next few years. Yet its very structure serves to mask a build-up in the unrecognised financial liabilities of companies. It also, critics.../p

  • Companies and tax: Cook lightly grilled

    pdiv class=content-image-full img src=http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/print-edition/20130525_WBP001_0.jpg alt= title= width=595 height=335 / span class='caption'No cooking the books at Apple, its boss insists/span /divAPPLE pays “all the taxes we owe—every single dollar,” its boss, Tim Cook, told the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations on May 21st. The previous day the subcommittee had issued a report claiming that Apple’s extensive use of tax havens and shell companies had helped it avoid paying tax to Uncle Sam on $44 billion of profits between 2009 and 2012.Apple has a two-pronged tax avoidance strategy, says Carl Levin, the chairman of the subcommittee. First, it “executes a shift of the profit-generating power of its intellectual property to an offshore tax haven”. Second, it “uses a number of tactics to ensure that, once this income is offshore, it remains shielded from US taxes”.Among the tactics identified by the report was the creation of a subsidiary, Apple Operations International, based in Cork, Ireland, which in turn is parent to the group’s international sales arm. Between 2009 and 2012 the Irish offshoot recorded profits of $30 billion, courtesy of its having sucked in vast sums from other subsidiaries. Yet it has not filed a tax return anywhere for the past five years.The company.../p

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Financial Times — Europe

  • French court eases pressure on Lagarde

    Decision lifts cloud that had gathered over ex-finance minister’s position as leader of one of the world’s top international institutions

  • News Corp adopts ‘poison pill’ in split

    Murdoch media empire has appointed new boards to manage groups although Rupert, Lachlan and James will retain seats in both companies

  • Tim Cook: Apple’s quiet leader

    A robust defence of the technology giant’s tax affairs has bolstered the chief executive’s profile as he emerges from Steve Jobs’ long shadow

  • PG buoyed by return of Lafley

    A.G. Lafley first became PG’s chief in 2000 after his predecessor tried to drive through a restructuring plan that had brought chaos and a flurry of profit warnings

  • Fire in the people’s home

    Unrest in Stockholm’s suburbs is testing a famed social model amid complaints of racism and the dismantling of public services. By Martin Sandbu and David Crouch

  • US senators raise flag over SoftBank’s Sprint bid

    The political opposition does not appear to represent a threat to the deal, but the statements will increase pressure on the White House

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Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce - slideshow image

Chairman and CEO of NYSE Euronext Lisbon speaks at the Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce

Professor Luis Laginha, Chairman and CEO of NYSE Euronext Lisbon, presented at a breakfast seminar in NY on October 17th. The topic of his talk was “Prospects for the Portuguese Capital Markets: The View from the Lisbon Stock Exchange.” His timely presentation can be seen here soon.

Posted on 19 Oct 2012
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Portuguese Day at the New York Stock Exchange, October 15, 2012

Image - Portuguese Day at the New York Stock Exchange, October 15, 2012

October 15, 2012 was the 4th annual Portuguese Day at the New York Stock Exchange! Portuguese day provided an opportunity for Portuguese companies, among them EDP, Martifer, and REN, to meet with potential investors, and to inform them about investment opportunities available in Portugal. The morning began with the ringing of the Exchange bell by Carlos Moedas, Secretary of State to the Prime Minister of Portugal, followed by investor meetings and a presentation by the Secretary of State. (Dr. Moedas’ presentation can be seen here soon).

Posted on 19 Oct 2012
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NY Bar Association Seasonal Meeting in Lisbon, 10-13 October 2012

The Portugal-US Chamber of Commerce will be present at the Seasonal Meeting of the International Section of the NY Bar Association, in Lisbon, from 10-13 October.  The Chamber will host a coffee break on the morning of October 11th. For further details about the event, please see here.

Posted on 4 Oct 2012
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Portugal Day at the NY Stock Exchange, 15-16 October 2012

The New York Stock Exchange Euronext and CaixaBI will be hosting Portuguese Day in New York on 15 and 16 October 2012. Several Portuguese companies will be present, along with members of the Portuguese government, including Dr. Carlos Moedas, Secretary of State to the Prime Minister of Portugal. Please see here for full details.

Posted on 4 Oct 2012
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PALCUS hosts Annual Gala, October 27, 2012

The Portuguese American Leadership Council of the United States (PALCUS) will be hosting its 16th Leadership Awards Gala on the evening of Saturday, October 27, 2012, in Short Hills, New Jersey. For ticket information and further details, please Contact PALCUS at: (202) 466-4664, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or http://www.palcus.org.

Posted on 4 Oct 2012
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Our Organization

The Portugal–US Chamber of Commerce in New York was founded in 1979 to stimulate economic development, trade and investment, and cultural exchange between the United States and Portugal. As a member of the Association of Portuguese-American Chambers of Commerce (APACC), it works closely with its counterparts in Portugal, Canada, and across the United States to promote shared interests in Portugal and expose the vast economic opportunities of the country. The Chamber provides its members ongoing opportunities to network with individuals also engaged in Portugal-US affairs as well as numerous channels by which they can obtain essential bilateral support and information.

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Membership Benefits

Membership in the Chamber is open to all individuals who are interested in building a strong economic partnership between Portugal and the United States. Current members range from small businesses to large corporations in the fields of banking and finance, construction, communications, education, import/export, law, and transportation, to name a few.

Membership benefits include:

  • Frequent Chamber events that promote networking and foster strong community ties
  • Access to prominent business and government leaders
  • Alerts of noteworthy cultural and social events in New York City
  • Business luncheons and seminars to expose members to exciting new economic opportunities
  • Access to online resources and members-only directory
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