Turkish Forum

Category: Business

  • More on Turkish reforms

    More on Turkish reforms

    Author: Emre Deliveli

    Loyal readers would know that I love doing addenda to my Daily News columns, especially since I have to adhere to a strict character limits and usually have to leave out quite a bit of important stuff.

    But this is probably the first time I am writing an addendum to two columns: Last week’s and the coming week’s, which will be published, as usual, on Monday. As I refer to the government’s reform agenda in both columns, I should summarize what the government has in mind.

    My friend Ozlem Derici of Erste Securities was kind enough to send me quite a few links, all recent news about the government’s upcoming reform agenda- she is much more organized than I am, so I guess she was saving the links. I will summarize the government’s reform agenda by using the links she sent me. Unfortunately, all the links are in Turkish, but I am providing a brief summary on each “reform” for those who don’t speak (or at least read) Turkish.

    So here are “rumors” of the government’s reform agenda, based on news of the last few months:

    * Autos: The Automotive Industry Association (OSD, as it is known in Turkey) will present a report on domestic production to the government this month. The government will discuss support and subsidies with the sector after the report is submitted.

    * Informal Sector: The economy team has prepared a 47-point action plant to combat the informal sector, which was discussed at the Economy Coordination Board meeting mid-August.

    * Merging government expense monitoring: Similar to the recent merging in tax collection, monitoring of government spending is being merged under one roof as well.

    * Encouraging domestic production: The government is considering using procurement to encourage domestic production, especially in pharmaceuticals as well as “intelligent boards” and tablets (the government is planning distributing tablets to all students). Science, Technology and Industry (he must be one busy fellow, right) Minister Nihat Ergun notes that the existing law allows the government to prefer domestically-produced goods even if they are 15 percent more expensive.

    * Developing Industrial Zones: Free land is being handed out at Industrial Zones (OSBs in Turkish) with a law that was enacted just a few days ago. The only requirement is that the buyers should start production within three years and employ at least ten people.

    * IDUS & GITES: OK, I need to explain these. The first is “strategy for export-oriented production” and the second is “input supply strategy”. I made the acronyms up for the first, but GITES is the official acronym for the second. I don’t know the details of IDUS, at least anything more than what the name implies:), but the second is supposed to identify and encourage inputs that Turkey has an “advantage” in. There is supposed to be a background study for the project by Harvard and MIT professors. I am planning to comment in detail on that after I get a hold of that report, but here are some links back from March, when the admiral disclosed the plan, if you are interested.

    * Labor Reforms: According to the papers, the labor reform package will involve, among other things, regional minimum wages and temporary employment, both of which, are very good ideas, as I was arguing last week.

    * Istanbul Finance Center: The government is planning a large Omnibus Law for October-November, which is supposed to take care of most of the remaining 62 items in the government’s Strategy and Action Plan, or SAP, to make a financial center out of Istanbul, which was introduced, with great fanfare, during the 2009 IMF-World Bank meetings. FYI, the SAP has 71 items, so only 9 have been completed so far! Anyway, I was recently commissioned to write a brief article about Istanbul’s financial center prospects, to appear in a book to be handed out at the G-20 meetings in Istanbul in November. Being a true patriotic Turk, I wanted to write about this Omnibus Law as well, but I could not learn anything at all. I am not sure if that was because government officials are very tight-lipped about it, or simply that there is nothing in it:)

    On a general note, many economists are very skeptical of the reform agenda precisely for the very same reason: With so many items, we will either get the most ambitious agenda after Ataturk’s reforms in the 20s, or just an empty package, which will involve lots of talk, but no deeds…

    via EconoMonitor : EconoMonitor » More on Turkish reforms.

  • Special Report: What is Turkey Returning to Armenians?

    Special Report: What is Turkey Returning to Armenians?

    By: Raffi Bedrosyan

    (Armenian Weekly)–The Turkish government recently announced  that real estate assets confiscated by the State, which once belonged to Armenian, Greek, and Jewish charitable foundations, would be returned to the rightful owners, and that the government would pay compensation for any confiscated property that has since been sold to third parties.  This is definitely a long overdue positive step in the right direction by the Turkish government, when compared with decades long injustice and discrimination of the past Turkish governments against its non-Muslim citizens. While this decree was hailed by the EU, Turkish media  as well as the minority charitable foundations in Turkey, it was met by the Armenian Diaspora as an insufficient gesture at best, a cynical political trick at worst. Perhaps the following facts can help put the issue in context.

    Selamet Han

    In 1936, the Turkish government required the non-Muslim minority charitable foundations to submit a list of all their real estate assets to the state, which they did. In 1974, during the height of the Cyprus crisis and with inflamed hatred toward the Greeks, the Turkish government installed by the 1971 coup d’etat decreed that any assets not shown on the 1936 lists, that is, properties deeded to the charitable foundations after 1936, are illegally obtained and therefore, must be seized by the Turkish state. Some 1,410 properties willed or gifted to the non-Muslim charitable organizations from 1936 to 1974, were confiscated by the State, thus suddenly depriving the foundations from their beneficial uses and revenues. These assets included apartment, school and office buildings, houses, shops and vacant land, mostly in or near Istanbul, where most of the remaining non-Muslim minority citizens in Turkey lived. The present government decree pledges to return 162 of the 1,410 assets confiscated in 1974. Over the past several years, the charitable foundations had tried through Turkish legal channels to get back these assets but to no avail. They had recently applied to the European Court of Human Rights, which had already ruled against the Turkish state on a number of cases.

    Below is a partial list of the Armenian charitable foundation assets to be returned by the government:

    1.       Gedikpasha Armenian Protestant primary school – the building is already demolished, at present used as a park

    2.       Gedikpasha Armenian Protestant Church – one apartment building in Kumkapi, a restaurant, a playground

    3.       Surp Harutyun Armenian Church – several flats in Beyoglu

    4.       Ferikoy Surp Vartanants Church – an apartment building and a vacant lot in Sisli

    5.       Kurucheshme Surp Khatch Yerevman Church – one building in Arnavutkoy

    6.       Kumkapi Surp Harutyun School – a store in Kumkapi and a store in Kadikoy

    7.       Kumkapi Mayr Asdvadzadzin Church – a flat in Eminonu

    8.       Yenikoy Surp Asdvadzadzin Church – a vacant lot in Istinye

    9.       Bomonti Mkhitaryan Armenian Catholic School – school buildings, two shops and a flat in Sisli

    10.   Yedikule Surp Prgitch (Holy Saviour) Armenian Hospital –  a total of 19 properties, including one building lot, a house and four shared lots in Sariyer, a residential building in Moda, 2 residential buildings in Sisli, one flat in Beyoglu, one store in Kapalicarsi Covered Bazaar,  a house in Uskudar, one apartment building, one flat and a warehouse in Kurtulus, a four storey hotel in Taksim, a retail and office commercial building in Beyoglu, a flat in Chamlica, a 47,500 sq. m. vacant lot in Beykoz, and a 44,000 sq. m. land adjacent to the Hospital, formerly the gardens of the Hospital, presently used as Zeytinburnu Soccer Stadium, a sports building, a parking lot and a tea garden, and last but not least, the valuable office building called Selamet Han in Eminonu, Istanbul.

    It is noteworthy to emphasize the significance of the Selamet Han office building, which was donated in 1953 by well known businessman and oil magnate Caloust Gulbenkian. The impressive six storey art nouveau style building was built in early 20. century  by Armenian architect Hovsep Aznavour, builder of many of the Istanbul landmarks in the Pera/Beyoglu district. The Selamet Han building, confiscated by the state in 1974, fell into disrepair and is now in a dilapidated condition. The Surp Prgitch Foundation has announced that as soon as the building is given back, it intends to restore it and put into use as a boutique hotel, to generate much needed revenues for the hospital operations.

    The recent government decree at last and at least partially addresses the injustices of the 1974 confiscations, by pledging to return about ten percent of the 1,410 properties, mostly in Istanbul.  However,  there is a massive list of properties and assets belonging to the thousands of Armenian churches, monasteries and schools in Anatolia, lost after 1915. One example to illustrate the enormity of this issue is the case of the Surp Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, which by itself had owned more than 200 properties in central Diyarbakir prior to 1915. Another interesting example is the Sanasaryan High School in Erzurum. This school, which provided education of such  high caliber that it even surpassed the Istanbul Armenian schools in the late 19. century, was closed down in 1915. It is still a little known fact in Turkey that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, when drumming up support and organizing the resistance to the Allied occupation of Anatolia, convened the famous Erzurum Congress in this Armenian school in July-August 1919. The Sanasaryan School Foundation, had built and owned one of the largest office buildings in Istanbul in the late 19th Century,  in order to support the Sanasaryan School in Erzurum. It is also a little known fact that the famous Sanasaryan Han Office Building  in Istanbul was seized first by the Ottoman and then the Turkish Republic governments and converted into the General Security and Police Headquarters of Istanbul. This building became notorious for the imprisonment, torture and murder of hundreds of intelligentsia during the military government regimes in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

    One last glaring example involves the lands belonging to the Surp Agop Armenian Cemetery, which were confiscated in the 1930s by the Istanbul municipal government. These lands were deeded in the 16. Century by the Ottoman Emperor Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to the Armenian people for cemetery uses, as a reward to his personal cook Manuk Karaseferyan of Van, who saved the Sultan from a poisoning plot against him by the Germans and Hungarians after the campaign to take Budapest. The  Armenian cemetery was in use for nearly four centuries from 1560s to 1930s. As these vast lands lie adjacent to the most popular road in the centre of the city, they were deemed most valuable by the Istanbul government and expropriated  from the Armenian Surp Agop Foundation without any compensation, despite years of legal struggles. At present, these lands are occupied by the State Radio and Television Headquarters, The Turkish Armed Forces Istanbul Headquarters,  the Military Museum, many fashionable hotels such as Hilton, Regency Hyatt, Divan, several apartment and office buildings, as well as the expansive Taksim Park, which has walkways made from marble of the Armenian tombstones.

    The decree by the present government may seem insufficient or insignificant, but everything is relative, and this is an enormous first step of a long journey in the right direction when compared with past Turkish government policies. This journey requires mutual empathy, cooperation, encouragement and, above all, the uncovering of all hidden historic facts on the path to the creation of a common body of knowledge.

  • How Global Investors Make Money Out of Hunger

    How Global Investors Make Money Out of Hunger

    kids in hunger

    Speculating with Lives

    By Horand Knaup, Michaela Schiessl and Anne Seith

    In recent years, the financial markets have discovered the huge opportunities presented by agricultural commodities. The consequences are devastating, as speculators drive up food prices and plunge millions of people into poverty. But investors care little about the effects of their deals in the real world.

    The room in which the world’s food is distributed looks everything but appetizing. Bits of paper and disposable cups litter the trading floor at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Sweaty men in bright yellow, blue or red jackets walk around, seemingly oblivious of the debris beneath their feet, waving their hands, shouting and scrapping over futures contracts for soybeans, pork bellies or wheat.

    Here, in the trading room of the world’s largest commodity futures exchange, decisions are made about the prices of food — and, by extension, the fates of millions of people. Those decisions affect both hunger on the planet and the wealth of individual investors.

    For Alan Knuckman, there is hardly a nicer place than the CBOT trading floor. “This is capitalism in its purest form,” the commodities expert raves. “This is where millionaires are made.” The 42-year-old’s face shines with a boyish glow — perhaps because he has never stopped playing.

    Knuckman arrived here 27 years ago, and quickly advanced from his first job as a runner in the trading room to a trader. He worked for brokerage firms, soon established his own firm and is now an analyst with Agora Financials, a consulting firm specializing in commodities investments. He also writes a newsletter that offers investment tips. “I trade in anything you can get in and out of quickly,” he says candidly. “I’m here to make money.”

    ‘I Believe in the Market’

    How he makes money doesn’t make any difference to Knuckman. He draws no distinctions among commodities like petroleum, silver or food products. “I don’t believe in politics,” he says. “I believe in the market, and the market is always right.”

    How does he feel about exploding food prices? For Knuckman, they are purely a reflection of supply and demand. And speculators? They’re good for the market, because they predict developments early on. Is there excessive speculation? “I don’t see it.”

    It’s a surprising comment. Never before has so much cash flowed into financial transactions involving agricultural commodities. In the last quarter of 2010 alone, the amount of money invested in these commodities tripled compared with the previous quarter. There has been a lot of money in the market since the countries of the world tried to overcome the financial crisis with massive economic stimulus programs and bailout packages.

    Agricultural commodities attract investors who are no more interested in grain than they were previously in dot-com companies or subprime mortgages. They range from giant pension funds to small private investors searching for new, safer investment options.

    Satisfying the Demand

    The large index and agriculture funds now being offered by the banks seem to have come along just at the right time to satisfy this demand. All of a sudden, the world’s food supplies have become a tradable commodity, as easy to handle as stocks.

    The downside is that food prices are rising in parallel to the ravenous demand for agricultural securities. In March, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported new record high prices, which even surpassed the prices during the last major food crisis in 2008. According to the FAO’s Food Price Index, overall food costs rose by 39 percent within one year. Grain prices went up by 71 percent, as did prices for cooking oil and fat. The index had reached 234 points in July, only four points below its all-time high in February.

    “The age of cheap food is over,” predicts Knuckman, noting that this can’t be such a bad thing for US citizens. “Most Americans eat too much, anyway.”

    For his fellow Americans, who spend 13 percent of their disposable income on food, the price hike may be an annoyance. But for the world’s poor, who are forced to spend 70 percent of their meager budgets on food, it’s life-threatening.

    Since last June alone, higher food prices have driven another 44 million people below the poverty line, reports the World Bank. These are people who must survive on less than $1.25 (€0.87) a day. More than a billion people are starving worldwide. The current famine in the Horn of Africa is not only the result of drought, civil war and corrupt officials, but is also caused by prohibitively high food prices.

    ‘Side Effects’

    Knuckman refers to the fact that the poorest of the poor can no longer pay for their food as “undesirable side effects of the market.” Halima Abubakar, a 25-year-old Kenyan woman, is experiencing these supposed side effects at first hand.

    She is sitting in her corrugated metal hut in Kibera, Nairobi’s biggest slum, wondering what to put on the table this evening for her husband and their two children. Until now, the Abubakars were among the higher earners in Kibera. The family managed to feed itself adequately with the monthly salary of €150 that Halima’s husband earns as a prison guard.

    But that has suddenly become difficult. The price of corn meal, the most important food staple in Kenya, is now at a record high after increasing by more than 100 percent in only five months. Potato prices went up by a third, milk is also more expensive, and so are vegetables.

    Abubakar doesn’t know why this is the case. She only knows that she suddenly has to pay close attention to how she spends the family’s meager daily food budget of about 300 shillings (€2.30). Her first step was to switch to a cheaper brand of corn meal. It doesn’t taste of much, but at least it fills one’s stomach. She sometimes goes without her own lunch so that her children can have enough to eat.

    List of Possible Reasons

    “More poor people are suffering and more people could become poor because of high and volatile food prices,” World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in April, describing the brutal effects of price increases on consumers in developing countries. The problem has many experts deeply concerned. The probable reasons for the price explosions are cited again and again at meetings and conferences. They include:

    • Climate change, which leads to droughts, floods and storm, and thus to crop failures;
    • The cultivation of biofuels, which takes valuable farmland out of food production;
    • The global population, which is growing too fast for agricultural production to keep up;
    • The emerging economies China and India, whose citizens are consuming greater quantities of higher quality food;
    • The rising price of oil, which makes it more expensive to produce and ship food products;
    • The rise in meat consumption, which means that more grain is needed for animal feed;
    • Decades of neglecting agriculture, especially in hunger-prone regions.

    All of these factors sound logical and plausible, and some undoubtedly contribute to the tense food situation. Yet they are not responsible for the excessive price hikes.

    Olivier de Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, is one of the few who is trying to set the record straight. The production of biofuel and other “supply shocks” — such as crop failures and export bans — were “relatively minor catalysts,” he wrote recently. “But they set off a giant speculative bubble in a strained and desperate global financial environment.” He identifies the true culprits as major investors who, as the financial markets have dried up, have invested heavily in the commodities trade, expanding it beyond all proportion. According to de Schutter, excessive speculation is the primary cause of the price increases. Indeed, closer inspection reveals that the reasons cited to date for the price hikes on food products are somewhat dubious.

    • Part 2: Every Bubble Needs a Story
    • Part 3: Number of Speculators Will Continue to Grow
    • Part 4: ‘It’s the Government’s Responsibility to Feed People’

    www.spiegel.de, 09/01/2011

  • How Sweet It Is: Destinations And Their Desserts

    How Sweet It Is: Destinations And Their Desserts

    Culinary indulgences come easy to the traveler, especially when it comes to something sweet. Most destinations have at least one signature dessert – that one confection that they do so well; that certain dish that has history in every bite. Here are six cities and their famous desserts to try:

    Turkish Delight in İstanbul

    Turkish Delight for sale in Istanbul
    Turkish Delight for sale in Istanbul

    Ali Muhiddin Hacı Bekir was the most famous of all Ottoman confectioners. He came to İstanbul from the mountain town of Kastamonu in 1777 and opened a shop in the Old City where he concocted delicious boiled sweets and the translucent jellied jewels known to Turks as lokum – and to the rest of the world as Turkish Delight. Today, locals still buy their lokum from branches of the business he began over two centuries ago.

    The flagship store of Ali Muhiddin Hacı Bekir is located near the Spice Bazaar. There are also stores on İstiklal Caddesi and in the produce market at Kadıköy. A more recent family dynasty has been established at Herşey Aşktan, opposite Pera Palace Hotel. Its delicious Turkish Delight can be packaged in decorative boxes, creating a perfect gift to take home to friends and family.

    Cheesecake in New York

    Sure, cheesecake, in one form or another, has been baked and eaten in Europe since the 1400s. But New Yorkers have appropriated its history in the form of the New York-style cheesecake. Immortalized by Lindy’s restaurant in Midtown, (which was opened by Leo Lindemann in 1921) the version served there – made of cream cheese, heavy cream, a dash of vanilla and a cookie crust – became wildly popular in the ’40s. Junior’s, which opened on Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn in 1929 (and more recently in Midtown) makes its own famous version of the creamy cake with a graham-cracker crust.

    Gelato in Florence

    During Renaissance and 16th-century Florence, two cooks made ice-cream history: Ruggeri, a chicken farmer who made it to the culinary big time thanks to a sorbet he made for Catherine Medici; and Bernardo Buontalenti, a well-known architect who produced a frozen dessert based on zabaglione (a dessert of whipped egg yolks, sugar and sweet wine) and fruit. Both are considered founding fathers of Italy‘s gelato culture. You’ll usually be asked if you want panna (cream) with your ice cream. A good call is si.

    Florentines take their gelato seriously. There’s a healthy rivalry among the local gelaterie artigianale (makers of handmade gelato), who all strive to create the creamiest, most flavorful and freshest product in the city. Flavors change according to what fruit is in season. Three of our favorites are: Gelateria dei Neri (semifreddo-style; cheaper than its competitors; wild flavors like gorgonzola); Gelateria Vivoli (tubs only – eat in the pretty piazza nearby); and Grom (a newcomer using many organic ingredients).

    via How Sweet It Is: Destinations And Their Desserts | FoxNews.com.

  • Turkcell and Huawei Select NXP Technology to Launch First NFC-Enabled Smartphone in Turkey

    Turkcell and Huawei Select NXP Technology to Launch First NFC-Enabled Smartphone in Turkey

    Turkcell and Huawei Select NXP Technology to Launch First NFC-Enabled Smartphone in Turkey
    T20 Smartphone Brings ‘Mobile Wallet’ to Turkish Consumers

    EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS, Aug 30, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — NXP Semiconductors N.V. /quotes/zigman/119156/quotes/nls/nxpi NXPI -2.45% today announced that Turkcell /quotes/zigman/291809/quotes/nls/tkc TKC 0.00% (ise:TCELL), the leading communications and technology company in Turkey, has selected the PN544 near field communication (NFC) radio chip for Turkcell’s recently launched T20 smartphone. The T20 handset, manufactured by Huawei, is one of the world’s first commercially available low-cost Android NFC-enabled smartphones. This NFC-enabled mobile phone will allow consumers to perform a variety of secure contactless transactions from convenient payments, data sharing, public transport, event ticketing and access control, while providing a secure, flexible and interoperable canvass to create the next experience in mobile-on-the-go.

    The Turkcell T20 is already pre-loaded with Turkcell Cep-T Cuezdan, a mobile wallet service from Turkcell developed by Turkcell Technology on Gingerbread 2.3.3 OS. Via the NFC-enabled phone, consumers can transform their physical wallet into a mobile one and provide an easy-to-use and secure mobile transaction environment for all the daily needs of Turkcell’s subscribers. Cep-T Cuezdan subscribers can also benefit from the discovery screen in the UI that allows them to know which cards they can include in their mobile wallet.

    Offering secure data storage, payment and transaction, the T20 handset uses a secure element in the SIM card, which is connected to NXP’s NFC chip, PN544, via the single wire protocol (SWP). The resulting NFC solution enables secure wireless two-way communication between the T20 Smartphone and other phones, terminals or readers. NXP provides a fully compliant end-to-end NFC platform for handset manufacturers and operators enabling next-generation NFC devices and services. Complementing the secure NFC solutions, NXP offers a complete open source software stack for NFC which is fully integrated and validated on the Gingerbread Android(TM) platform.

    “NFC technology is instrumental in helping us to achieve our ambition of increasing the penetration of mobile contactless innovations in the Turkish market,” said Cenk Bayrakdar, Chief New Technology Business Officer, Turkcell. “Working with NXP, we were able to build a feature-rich, interactive and flexible mobile wallet solution through the open source Android platform. This is our first commercial smartphone developed on Gingerbread 2.3.3 OS and we are extremely pleased to be first to market with this innovation in Turkey.”

    “NFC offers a truly exciting technology that will enhance every aspect of the mobile experience for consumers. Working with NXP, we are able to quickly bring to market the latest NFC-enabled handsets and mobile devices on a global scale while maintaining low implementation and development costs,” said Anil Oeztekin, Turkcell sales director, Huawei Turkey Terminal Department.

    “NXP co-invented NFC with the aim of putting the mobile phone at the center of the consumer’s world — the launch of the T20 is a significant achievement and truly supports our ambition to enable more and more NFC-based services around the world,” said Jeff Miles, vice president, mobile transactions, NXP Semiconductors. “We have created secure NFC solutions that can support a variety of mobile wallet applications to help mobile handset manufacturers, banks, retailers and network operators offer new services to diversify their business and provide added value to customers.”

    NXP has demonstrated that customers can now build secure NFC-enabled mobile wallets using an embedded secure element, secure element in the SIM, or micro-SD based secure element. The company offers secure and flexible solutions for all configurations and use cases.

    Links

    — NXP portfolio for NFC
    — NXP PN544 Product Sheet
    — Additional information on near field communication (NFC)
    — Turkcell T20 press release (July 7, 2011)

    About Turkcell

    Turkcell is the leading communications and technology company in Turkey with 34.1 million subscribers and a market share of approximately 54% as of June 30, 2011 (source:Operator’s announcements and excluding the impact of the change in prepaid churn periods in Q2 2011). Turkcell is a leading regional player, with market leadership in five of the nine countries in which it operates with its approximately 61.7 million subscribers as of June 30, 2011. The company covers approximately 85% of the Turkish population through its 3G and 99.07% through its 2G technology supported network. It has become one of the first among the global operators to have implemented HSDPA+ and achieved a 42.2 Mbps speed using the HSPA multi carrier solution. Turkcell reported a TRY2.3 billion (US$1.5 billion) net revenue with total assets of TRY15.5 billion (US$9.5 billion) as of June 30, 2011. It has been listed on the NYSE and the ISE since July 2000, and is the only NYSE-listed company in Turkey. Read more at www.turkcell.com.tr

    About Huawei

    Huawei Device is a global leader in providing smart devices that connect you with the world, simply. Huawei Device partners with 500 operators, including the world’s top 50 operators, across 140 countries. Huawei’s products and solutions have been deployed in over 100 countries and support the communications needs of one third of the world’s population. The company is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and growth potential for its customers.

    About NXP Semiconductors

    NXP Semiconductors N.V. /quotes/zigman/119156/quotes/nls/nxpi NXPI -2.45% provides High Performance Mixed Signal and Standard Product solutions that leverage its leading RF, Analog, Power Management, Interface, Security and Digital Processing expertise. These innovations are used in a wide range of automotive, identification, wireless infrastructure, lighting, industrial, mobile, consumer and computing applications. A global semiconductor company with operations in more than 25 countries, NXP posted revenue of $4.4 billion in 2010. For more information visit www.nxp.com .

    Forward-looking Statements

    This document includes forward-looking statements which include statements regarding NXP’s business strategy, financial condition, results of operations, and market data, as well as any other statements which are not historical facts. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those projected. These factors, risks and uncertainties include the following: market demand and semiconductor industry conditions; the ability to successfully introduce new technologies and products; the end-market demand for the goods into which NXP’s products are incorporated; the ability to generate sufficient cash, raise sufficient capital or refinance corporate debt at or before maturity; the ability to meet the combination of corporate debt service, research and development and capital investment requirements; the ability to accurately estimate demand and match manufacturing production capacity accordingly or obtain supplies from third-party producers; the access to production capacity from third-party outsourcing partners; any events that might affect third-party business partners or NXP’s relationship with them; the ability to secure adequate and timely supply of equipment and materials from suppliers; the ability to avoid operational problems and product defects and, if such issues were to arise, to correct them quickly; the ability to form strategic partnerships and joint ventures and to successfully cooperate with alliance partners; the ability to win competitive bid selection processes to develop products for use in customers’ equipment and products; the ability to successfully establish a brand identity; the ability to successfully hire and retain key management and senior product architects; and, the ability to maintain good relationships with our suppliers. In addition, this document contains information concerning the semiconductor industry and NXP’s business segments generally, which is forward-looking in nature and is based on a variety of assumptions regarding the ways in which the semiconductor industry, NXP’s market segments and product areas may develop. NXP has based these assumptions on information currently available, if any one or more of these assumptions turn out to be incorrect, actual market results may differ from those predicted. While NXP does not know what impact any such differences may have on its business, if there are such differences, its future results of operations and its financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak to results only as of the date the statements were made. Except for any ongoing obligation to disclose material information as required by the United States federal securities laws, NXP does not have any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after we distribute this document, whether to reflect any future events or circumstances or otherwise. For a discussion of potential risks and uncertainties, please refer to the risk factors listed in our SEC filings. Copies of our SEC filings are available from on our Investor Relations website, www.nxp.com/investor or from the SEC website, www.sec.gov .

    Image Available:

    SOURCE: NXP Semiconductors

    Copyright 2011 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

  • Euro bail-out in doubt as ‘hysteria’ sweeps Germany

    Euro bail-out in doubt as ‘hysteria’ sweeps Germany

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer has enough coalition votes in the Bundestag to secure backing for Europe’s revamped rescue machinery, threatening a consitutional crisis in Germany and a fresh eruption of the euro debt saga.

    merkel sarko
    Seething discontent in Germany over Europe's debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions. Photo: AP

    By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

    Mrs Merkel has cancelled a high-profile trip to Russia on September 7, the crucial day when the package goes to the Bundestag and the country’s constitutional court rules on the legality of the EU’s bail-out machinery.

    If the court rules that the €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) breaches Treaty law or undermines German fiscal sovereignty, it risks setting off an instant brushfire across monetary union.

    The seething discontent in Germany over Europe’s debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions of the state. “Hysteria is sweeping Germany ” said Klaus Regling, the EFSF’s director.

    German media reported that the latest tally of votes in the Bundestag shows that 23 members from Mrs Merkel’s own coalition plan to vote against the package, including twelve of the 44 members of Bavaria’s Social Christians (CSU). This may force the Chancellor to rely on opposition votes, risking a government collapse.

    Christian Wulff, Germany’s president, stunned the country last week by accusing the European Central Bank of going “far beyond its mandate” with mass purchases of Spanish and Italian debt, and warning that the Europe’s headlong rush towards fiscal union stikes at the “very core” of democracy. “Decisions have to be made in parliament in a liberal democracy. That is where legitimacy lies,” he said.

    A day earlier the Bundesbank had fired its own volley, condemning the ECB’s bond purchases and warning the EU is drifting towards debt union without “democratic legitimacy” or treaty backing.

    Joahannes Singhammer, leader of the CSU’s Bundestag group, accused the ECB of acting “dangerously” by jumping the gun before parliaments had voted. The ECB is implicitly acting on behalf of the rescue fund until it is ratified.

    A CSU document to be released on Monday flatly rebuts the latest accord between Chancellor Merkel and French president Nicholas Sarkozy, saying plans for an “economic government for eurozone states” are unacceptable. It demands treaty changes to let EMU states go bankrupt, and to eject them from the euro altogether for serial abuses.

    “An unlimited transfer union and pooling of debts for any length of time would imply a shared financial government and decisively change the character of a European confederation of states,” said the draft, obtained by Der Spiegel.

    Mrs Merkel faces mutiny even within her own Christian Democrat (CDU) family. Wolfgang Bossbach, the spokesman for internal affairs, said he would oppose the package. “I can’t vote against my own conviction,” he said.

    The Bundestag is expected to decide late next month on the package, which empowers the EFSF to buy bonds pre-emptively and recapitalize banks. While the bill is likely to pass, the furious debate leaves no doubt that Germany will resist moves to boost the EFSF’s firepower yet further. Most City banks say the fund needs €2 trillion to stop the crisis engulfing Spain and Italy.

    Mrs Merkel’s aides say she is facing “war on every front”. The next month will decide her future, Germany’s destiny, and the fate of monetary union.

    www.telegraph.co.uk, 28 Aug 2011