Archive for September 19th, 2007
Sarin to Display New Technologies at Hong Kong Jewelry and Watch Fair
Israel Diamond Portal, Israel
By: Rachel Lieberman
18.09.07, 09:45 / Israel
Sarin Technologies announced that it will be displaying new products for the diamond industry at the upcoming Hong Kong Jewelry and Watch Fair.
The company plans to provide information regarding its new ‘DiaExpert Nano’ machine, which was developed for the planning of small stones.
On display will be the company’s advanced color grading machine for polished diamonds called ‘Colibri.’ The machine measures and grades the color of diamonds as well as their fluorescence. Another item on display will be the ‘Sarin To Go,’ a digital report enabling companies to burn, upload and distribute a wide range of diamond data to CD’s for distribution to customers.
Sarin’s VP of Marketing, Udi Lederer, stated: “These new products take the industry to a new level. We are committed to helping retailers increase consumer confidence, and to covering the entire range of diamond sizes for manufacturing.”
September 19th, 2007
S&P issues credit watch on Freescale bonds; Jewelry Channel joins DISH Network
Austin American-Statesman (subscription), TX
COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
SEMICONDUCTORS
S&P warns it might lower rating on Freescale’s bonds
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on Tuesday issued a CreditWatch on corporate bonds issued by Austin-based Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
Freescale issued $5.95 billion in debt in November in conjunction with its $17.6 billion leveraged buyout, which was completed Dec. 1.
The CreditWatch was an alert to investors that S&P might reduce its BB- rating for Freescale’s bonds if negative business trends continue at the company.
“The action reflects the company’s depressed profitability and cash flows, resulting in debt leverage well above earlier expectations,” credit analyst Bruce Hyman with Standard & Poor’s said.
Hyman said Freescale’s earnings have been hurt by the weakness in cell phone sales by Motorola Inc., Freescale’s former parent and its largest customer.
“We are expecting some recovery in the September quarter, but I can’t feel comfortable that it is going to be sufficient to offset what we have seen,” Hyman said.
The company had no comment.
MARKETING
Boundless Network acquires Dallas-based distributorship
Austin-based Boundless Network, a promotional product distributor, acquired Footprints Marketing of Dallas, a fast-growing distributorship.
Boundless chief financial officer Gary Kofnovec said the company plans other acquisitions of companies with revenues in the $2 million to $10 million range.
Boundless has 42 employees plus 51 salespeople in offices around the country, and plans to add 35 in Austin in the next two years.
COMMUNICATIONS
Jewelry Channel reaches out to DISH Network audience
Round Rock-based Jewelry Channel joined the DISH Network satellite system lineup. The channel said the move doubled its potential audience to 33 million customers nationwide. It is already seen on Direct TV and cable systems around the country, including Time Warner digital cable in Austin.
The 24-hour channel sells jewelry in a dropping-price auction format. It opened its local studio in April and expects employment to rise from 135 this year to 700 by the fifth year.
It is owned by VGL Group, based in Jaipur, India.
September 19th, 2007
Companies Critical of Lead-Free Claims
By ANDREW BRIDGES – 1 hour ago
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Companies behind recent recalls of children’s toys and jewelry have told Congress that their Chinese suppliers assured them the products were virtually lead-free, though in one case a simple store-bought test revealed dangerous levels of the toxic metal.
Congress is investigating the recent spate of recalls, most of them involving Chinese-made products that contained excessive amounts of lead, including some toys sold by Mattel decorated with paint that exceeded U.S. lead standards by a factor of nearly 200. A subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to open two days of hearings Wednesday on this year’s recalls of millions of toys and other children’s products.
The subcommittee is expected to examine in part the business models that allowed the companies to import the lead-laden products.
Many of the companies behind the recalls of gumball machine trinkets, toy soldiers and costume jewelry said their suppliers signed agreements to comply with U.S. lead standards, according to some of 19 company responses to congressional inquiries released Tuesday. Many suppliers also provided copies of lab results that showed the items contained only minuscule levels of lead allowed by law.
However, those claims didn’t stand up to later scrutiny by the companies themselves and others that revealed lead levels that pushed 100 percent by weight in the case of some imported jewelry.
One company, Oriental Trading Co. Inc., told Congress its suppliers said its merchandise complied with all applicable U.S. laws, rules and regulations — including the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, which bans lead in jewelry intended for use by children.
Consumer Product Safety Commission testing of jewelry later recalled by the company found lead levels as high as 96 percent by weight. Oriental Trading said it no longer does business with the manufacturer.
Among those expected to testify are CPSC acting chairwoman Nancy Nord and Mattel Inc. chief executive Robert Eckert. Mattel has recalled about 1.5 million toys because of excessive lead. Company testing found paint on its recalled toys typically was about 1 percent lead — nearly 17 times the 0.06 percent allowed by law. Other paint samples had lead levels as high as 11 percent, or 183 times what is permitted, Mattel said.
Several other companies beyond Mattel also discovered high lead levels through their own testing programs. In other cases, it was the CPSC, Health Canada or consumer groups that discovered the lead and then alerted the companies.
For Kevin Dumphy of Spandrel Sales and Marketing Inc., it was a colleague in the vending machine industry who suggested he test the 25-cent jewelry his company sells. Dumphy told Congress in an Aug. 29 letter that his Tempe, Ariz., company bought a home lead-test kit at a hardware store to do so.
“We did and it failed,” Dumphy wrote. The company later recalled about 123,000 pieces of jewelry.
On the Net:
House Energy and Commerce Committee: http://energycommerce.house.gov/
September 19th, 2007
Defendant pleads guilty to Ginza jewelry heist
The Japan Times, Japan
BELGRADE (Kyodo) One of the two defendants in a 2004 Tokyo heist pleaded guilty Monday to robbing a Ginza jewelry shop of Â¥3.5 billion worth of merchandise but claimed he did it at the prompting of the shop’s personnel, who offered an award of $100,000.
Djordjije Rasovic, 42, admitted to the charge for the first time since the trial on the high-profile burglary case started in a Belgrade court in April 2006
Rasovic said he acted alone after the shop’s personnel solicited him to carry out the crime. However, both the court and prosecutors doubt the credibility of his testimony, sources said.
Rasovic denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of the 12 stolen pieces of jewelry, among them the 125-carat diamond necklace Comtesse de Vendome worth about ¥3 billion.
Rasovic said none of the three other suspects took part in the March 2004 robbery.
Until Monday, Rasovic had refused to speak in court.
The other defendant, Snezana Panajotovic, 24, said she was in Tokyo and near the posh Ginza jewelry shop at the time of the robbery but denied any connection with the crime.
Rasovic and Panajotovic, both put on an international wanted list, were arrested in 2005 in Serbia and Montenegro. Their trial started in Belgrade after Serbia and Japan reached an agreement under which Serbia conducts the trial on behalf of Japan, as the two countries do not have an agreement on extraditing criminals.
The Special Belgrade Court decided to continue the proceedings without inviting new witnesses as the testimony of the diamond shop employees had already been presented to the court during earlier proceedings.
The court is expected to announce the verdict in early October. If found guilty, the two defendants could get up to 15 years in prison.
Two other members of the group have yet to be tried. One of them, the leader of a crime syndicate, Aleksandar Radulovic, is in prison in Denmark for other crimes and would be tried when and if extradited to Serbia.
The court in Belgrade has no information on the whereabouts of the fourth suspect, a British woman.
September 19th, 2007
India’s Jewelry Exports Climb, Led by Diamond Sales (Update1)
By Debarati Roy
Bloomberg
Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — Exports of jewelry from India, the world’s largest producer, climbed 24 percent in the five months ended August as overseas sales of diamonds rose.
Exports reached $7.75 billion, compared with $6.24 billion a year ago, the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council said on its Web site.
India shipped gems and jewelry worth $1.87 billion last month compared with $1.43 billion a year earlier.
Gold demand from India almost doubled in the three months ended June 30 to 317.2 tons as faster-than-expected economic expansion and plans to double jewelry exports in the next five years sparked purchases and investment demand.
Diamond exports rose 25 percent to $5.1 billion and jewelry sales gained 24 percent to $2.2 billion in the five months ended August. Sales of gemstones rose 11 percent to $99 million, while shipments of rough diamonds rose 12 percent to $222 million from year ago, the council said.
India’s exports of gems and jewelry rose 3 percent to $17 billion in the year ended March from $16.6 billion a year ago, according to council’s Web site.
To contact the reporter for this story: Debarati Roy in Mumbai at droy5@bloomberg.net
September 19th, 2007
