Business in the Burbs » International

Church groups seek ITT arms report

Jerry Gleeson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:00:46 +0000

Three church groups will ask shareholders of ITT Corp. of White Plains to require the defense contractor to report on its foreign sales of weapons-related and military services.
The Dominican Sisters of Hope, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church plan to present the resolution at ITT’s annual meeting at its White Plains headquarters on May 12, according to the company’s proxy statement filed today.
The resolution would require the company to file a “comprehensive” report, excluding proprietary or classified data, within six months of the meeting. The resolution notes that two years ago ITT was fined $50 million for violating rules governing the handling of documents related to overseas military contracts.
“Weapons sold to one country at a certain time subsequently can become a threat to our own security, as we have seen several times in our recent history,” the church groups said in a statement accompanying the resolution. The report would help shareholders evaluate the effectiveness of new procedures the company has put in place to prevent further violations of the law, the groups added.
In arguing against the resolution, ITT said that the information already is in the public record through government agencies, ITT’s own annual report, and its Web site. Among other organizations, it cited the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (www dsca.mil,) which lists contracts and public notices of proposed military sales overseas.

PepsiCo to invest $1 billion in China

Jay Loomis — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:20:40 +0000

PepsiCo Inc., the Purchase-based beverage and snack food giant, will continue its expansion in rapidly growing international markets through its plans to invest $1 billion in China during the next four years.

The companyâ€™s comitment to China will include investing in manufacturing, increasing research and deveolpment, introducing new products for Chinese consumers and broadening product distribution through an expanded sales force.

PepsiCo and its bottlers, which already employ more than 22,000 people in China, expect to add thousand of additional jobs in the worldâ€™s largest country.

â€œThis is our largest investment in China in the nearly 30 years we have been doing business here, and it is consistent with our broader global strategy of investing in high-growth developing markets,â€ PepsiCo Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi said in a written statement.

Nooyi is making a four-day visit to China this week to meet with government officials and local business executives. She also will tour PepsiCoâ€™s operations in China.

China is one of PepsiCoâ€™s fastest-growing international markets. Many of the companyâ€™s biggest brands are produced and sold in China, including Pepsi, Frito-Lay snacks, Tropicana juices, Quaker foods and Gatorade sports drinks.

â€œWe are enormously confident in the continued prosperity of China,â€ Nooyi said. â€œWe look forward to building an even brighter future here.â€

PepsiCo, which reported 2007 revenues of more than $39 billion, does business in about 200 countries. Last year, 44 percent of the company’s sales originated outside the United States. The international markets provide important geographic diversification to PepsiCo as it looks to overcome a slower U.S. market hurt by a weakening economy.

IBM boosts investments in emerging markets

David Schepp — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:55:43 +0000

IBM Corp. said today it plans to accelerate investments in the developing nations of China, Mexico and India by opening centers of excellence in each nation.

These emerging-market countries, so-called because of their high economic growth potential, represented 19 percent of IBM’s geographic revenue in the second quarter, and as a group grew 21 percent, IBM said.

â€œThese results demonstrate that IBM has the ability to thrive in emerging markets,â€ said Bruno Di Leo, IBM general manager of growth markets. â€œOur continued investment give IBM a competitive edge,â€ he said.

The centers of excellence include a banking operation in China, a retail innovation center in Guadalajara, Mexico, and a management center in India, IBM said.

Starwood opens new hotel near Quebec City

David Schepp — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:14:26 +0000

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has opened a new Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Levis, Quebec, the hotelier said today.

The hotel, situated across the river from Quebec City, has 150 rooms and a 15,000-square-foot conference center.

White Plains-based Starwood operates 130 Four Points hotels in 22 countries.

ITT to provide pumps for Chilean mine

Jerry Gleeson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:29:54 +0000

ITT Corp. of White Plains said it has received a multi-million dollar contract to provide filtered seawater to a mining operation in a Chilean desert 90 miles from the coast. The Esperanza copper-gold mining project in the Atacama Desert will be the first large mine in the nation to use seawater in its mining process, the company said. The ITT system will use 16 pumps to move water to an elevation 7,550 feet above sea level.

Starwood unit to open hotels in China, Taiwan

David Schepp — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:19:56 +0000

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. said today its Le Meridien hotel division plans to open one hotel each in and Xiamen, China, in 2009, and Taipei, Taiwan, in 2011, as part of a planned expansion of the brand in the Asia-Pacific region.

The announcement follows plans released last year to open five Le Meridien brand hotels in Thailand, three of which are planned for this year. Le Meridien, which Starwood acquired in 2005, operates 110 hotels in 50 countries.

IBM buys Mass. software company

David Schepp — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:45:37 +0000

IBM Corp. acquired Diligent Technologies Corp., a Framingham, Mass., technology company, the Armonk-based computing giant said today.

Terms of the deal werenâ€™t disclosed.

Diligent, which has operations in Tel Aviv, Israel, develops â€œde-duplicationâ€ software that helps organizations reduce the amount and cost of of physical storage needed in data centers. Diligent will be folded into Armonk-based IBMâ€™s System Storage business unit, Big Blue said.

Separately, IBM said it signed a $2.8 billion agreement with Cetelem, a subsidiary of French banking giant BNP-Paribas, to upgrade Cetelemâ€™s consumer financial services operations in Argentina.