PERFORMANS MAGAZİN...

26 Temmuz 2007 Perşembe

Best Management Practices for Shutdowns • Turnarounds • Outages

Best Management Practices for Shutdowns • Turnarounds • Outages

At the Denver Marriott City Center in Denver, Colorado

September 9-12, 2007

The STO 2007 conference, produced by Eventure Events, promises to be the world’s most comprehensive program for organizations that conduct shutdowns, turnarounds, and outages. Attend STO 2007 to engage with a diverse community of hundreds of professionals from asset-intensive industries across North America and beyond!

STO 2007 offers a comprehensive two day program with content focused on best practices for planning cycles, strategies, and execution. Each day also offers three tracks of presenters, providing attendees with many choices, as well as exceptional breadth and depth in content.

Whether you are an industry expert or novice, STO 2007 is the premiere arena where you can gain valuable tips and tricks from real-world case studies, learn best practice strategies from your peers, and network with key STO thought leaders.

25 Temmuz 2007 Çarşamba

Turkish Stocks Gain on Electoral Results

With great risk comes great reward, and in an internationally diversified portfolio, national news turns quickly into market results. This weekend, while Wall Street slumbered, Turkey reaffirmed its commitment to progress and triggered a stock market cheer.

Will she or won't she? Turkey's pending accession to the European Union has been a topic of fierce debate among existing members of the continental body. Its conflict with Greece over control of the split Mediterranean island of Cyprus is one bone of contention, and then there is the touchy matter of Turkey's regional and religious history. Turkey is a secular Islamic state, generally thought of as part of the Middle East and bearing the Crescent and Star on its red flag.

A land of paradoxes, the separation of church and state is taken by many as an article of faith in the former capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. But recent political elections have been a jostle between vehemently secularist and moderate religious parties.

Unlike the "Islamist" connotations of parties like the Taliban or Hamas, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party has promoted pluralism of traditions, economic growth, and the acceptance of Turkey into the EU.

Based on the Istanbul stock market's reaction to Sunday's re-election of that party (known by its Turkish acronym AKP) and its prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country's economy is expected to benefit from continued moderate rule and parliamentary consensus-building on economic reforms encouraged by the EU.

The Istanbul Stock Exchange benchmark index, the IMKB-100, jumped by nearly 4% on Monday, reaching a record high during the session. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has jumped by leaps and bounds since the AKP came to power in 2002, and public debt plunged.

Our Orbus Investor pure play on Turkey, mobile phone network operator Turkcell, jumped in Istanbul and New York too, where it trades as NYSE:TKC. When the NYSE opened Monday, American Depositary Receipts of Turkcell jumped by over 8%, before Wall Street's overall decline Tuesday. The company's stock is up well over 30% since my recommendation in October of last year, with a significant upswing evident since this spring.

As it continually sets new highs, Turkcell is proving itself to be a perfect example of how to play a country's political progress in the international market.

Regards,

Sam Hopkins

Westcon Group Enters Turkey by Joint Venture with Index Group Subsidiary, Netex

Arrangement Provides Turkish Resellers with Access to World-Class Portfolio and Solutions Programs, Significantly Increasing Vendors’ Reach in Fast-Emerging Market

TARRYTOWN, N.Y.-Westcon Group, Inc., the leading specialty distributor in networking, convergence, security, and mobility, announced that it has entered into a joint venture with Index Group, an Istanbul-based distributor of IT equipment. As a result of the joint venture, Westcon Group, through Netex, becomes the leading networking and security distributor carrying Cisco and Nortel products in that region.

By partnering with an established, locally based distribution operation, Westcon Group is able to apply its solutions-based model while leveraging the local back office and logistics capabilities of Netex. In addition, Netex will be able to leverage the inventory position from Westcon Group’s warehouses in the Middle East and Europe. To further support the local reseller community, the Company will also launch Westcon Group’s targeted solutions programs during the next few months.
With a GDP of $358.5 billion and population of over 71 million, Turkey is an important emerging market where Westcon Group believes networking technology will play an increasingly vital role. Following Westcon’s recent successful entry in the Gulf region, this joint venture further strengthens its presence in emerging markets.

Willem de Haan, vice president, business development of Westcon Group, commented: “By establishing operations in Turkey, we continue to leverage our global relationship with Cisco and Nortel while bringing greater opportunity to resellers in that region. Our One-x and x-Point branded solution programs—which have already demonstrated success across the globe--will deliver the focus and tools to help resellers in Turkey become more successful in selling advanced technology solutions. We look forward to actively engaging an exciting new reseller base.”

Netex is a traditional networking and security distributor whose vendor relationships include Cisco, Nortel, HP, 3Com, Check Point and others. Netex has an advanced logistics capability along with many years of experience moving products in and out of Turkey. These aspects, combined with Comstor’s inventory positions of Cisco and other vendors, will increase Westcon Group’s ability to quickly penetrate the market.

Osvaldo Bianchi, Vice President Channels Emerging Markets of Cisco, commented: "As one of Cisco's Global Broad Based Distribution Partners, Westcon Group is in a position to bring the best practices and efficiency that will help increase Cisco's success in Turkey-especially considering their recent success in the Middle East, where we partnered with them to open distribution operations last year."

About Westcon Group

Westcon Group, Inc. is the leading specialty distributor in networking, security, mobility and convergence for leading technology vendors, including Cisco, Nortel and Avaya, Inc. Through its Westcon, Comstor and Voda One business practices, Westcon Group sells products and services to resellers, systems integrators and service providers. Westcon Group has particular expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video applications and technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, security for networking and communications systems, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and wireless connectivity. For more information, visit http://www.westcongroup.com/.

Unisys and Rabobank Renew Business Process Outsourcing Contract

Utility Approach to Payment Processing Continues to Enhance Cost Efficiencies and Security for Financial Services Leader

BLUE BELL, Pa.-Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS) today announced that Rabobank, one of the largest financial services providers in The Netherlands, has extended its business process outsourcing contract with Unisys Payment Services and Solutions (UPSS). The extension, signed in June 2007, covers all paper-related payment transactions for two additional years through

December 31, 2012.

“Extending and strengthening our relationship with UPSS allows us to continue to benefit from shared utility resources in an outsourcing arrangement that provides scale for added efficiencies, lower costs, and greater process optimization,” said Thea van Bommel at Rabobank. “Unisys is an important partner since its investments in technology and innovative new services help Rabobank to stay focused on our core business and stay ahead in an ever-changing payments world.”

UPSS, a subsidiary of Unisys Corporation, automates giro (paper-based, check-like payments) processing and money transfer forms for Rabobank and other clients. UPSS now processes more than 100 million paper-based payment transactions a year for European banks and has a market share of approximately 50 percent in the Netherlands.

Rabobank’s contract extension and new security services come as UPSS and Unisys continue to expand payment operations and solutions for financial institutions around the world. Unisys recently launched its Open Payments Platform and other payment solutions, for example, and secured a significant related engagement in May in the United States. UPSS also signed additional contracts with other European banks over the past few months.

“Unisys looks at common business processes across an entire enterprise to help financial institutions better manage payments and more easily plan for the impact of global epayments trends and initiatives that will significantly affect their business,” said Rob Fopma, managing director of UPSS. “With the introduction of fraud detection and prevention solutions, and offerings related to SEPA – the Single European Payment Area – and other new services, UPSS more and more is seen as a partner that can bring added value to a bank’s business.”

About Rabobank Group

Rabobank Group is a financial services leader providing retail and institutional banking and agricultural finance solutions in key markets around the world. From its century-old roots as a finance cooperative founded by Dutch farmers, Rabobank has grown into one of the 25 largest banks worldwide with approximately US$730 billion in assets and operations in over 35 countries. Rabobank is one of the few private banks in the world with the highest possible credit rating from both Standard & Poor’s (AAA) and Moody’s Investor Service (Aaa), and is ranked as the world’s third safest bank by Global Finance magazine. Visit http://www.rabobank.com/.

About UPSS

UPSS, a subsidiary of Unisys, provides various document services in a business process outsourcing utility for a number of leading financial services organizations in Europe. In addition to document services, UPSS now also offers solutions for cross-border payments, debit transactions, fraud detection and prevention, and secure printing and archiving of payment transactions.

About Unisys

Unisys is a worldwide technology services and solutions company. Our consultants apply Unisys expertise in consulting, systems integration, outsourcing, infrastructure, and server technology to help our clients achieve secure business operations. We build more secure organizations by creating visibility into clients’ business operations. Leveraging the Unisys 3D Visible Enterprise approach, we make visible the impact of their decisions—ahead of investments, opportunities and risks. For more information, visit http://www.unisys.com/.

RELEASE NO.: 0725/8803
http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/news_a_events/07258803.htm
Unisys is a registered trademark of Unisys Corporation. All other brands and products referenced herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Vicky Bindra Appointed President and CEO of GE Commercial Finance India

TOKYO--GE Commercial Finance announced today that Vicky Bindra has been named President and CEO, GE Commercial Finance India, succeeding Tejpreet S. Chopra who became President & CEO of GE India in June.

Vicky joins GE following a 12-year career with Citigroup where he was a member of Citigroup's Global Management Committee and served most recently as EVP Small Business and Customer Franchise, Global Consumer Group International. Prior to Citigroup, Vicky was a partner in the consulting firm, Bain & Company.

“There are tremendous opportunities in India,” said John Flannery, President and CEO of GE Commercial Finance Asia. “Vicky’s wealth of experience and proven leadership will allow us to accelerate the growth of our business in this critical market.”

Vicky holds a BA in Finance and Accounting from St. Xaviers College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
About GE Commercial Finance
GE Commercial Finance (http://www.gecommercialfinance.com/) offers businesses around the globe an extensive array of financial products and services. With more than US$246 billion in assets and expertise in the middle-market, GE Commercial Finance provides loans, operating leases, financing programs and innovative structured capital to help customers grow.

Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, GE Commercial Finance is a wholly owned subsidiary of the General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), a diversified services, technology and manufacturing company with operations worldwide.

17 Temmuz 2007 Salı

Summary of Israeli High-Tech Company Capital Raising Q2 / H1 2007

IVC Reports: Capital Raised by Israeli High-Tech Companies In H1/07 Reaches $842 Million – Up 10% From H1/06 12% of Capital Invested is Directed to Seed Companies

TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The following are the findings of the Quarterly Survey conducted by the IVC Research Center, which for more than eight years has been at the forefront of venture capital and private equity research in Israel.

In the second quarter of 2007, 118 Israeli high-tech companies raised $436 million from venture investors – both local and foreign. The amount was up 7 percent from $406 million raised by 121 companies in the previous quarter, and 8 percent ahead of the $404 million raised by 109 companies in the second quarter of 2006. In the first half of 2007, capital raised was $842 million, up 10 percent from H1 2006 levels.

Israeli VC Investment Activity

In the second quarter of 2007, Israeli VCs invested $193 million in Israeli companies, an increase of 13 percent from the previous quarter and 25 percent above Q2 2006 levels. In the first half of 2007, Israeli VCs invested $364 million in Israeli companies, an increase of 10 percent from H1 2006.

“H1 figures indicate 2007 may set a five-year record with high-tech investments reaching $1.7 billion,” said Zeev Holtzman, Chairman of IVC Research Center and Giza Venture Capital. “Despite the global competition in technology-focused investments – mainly from Asian markets

– Israeli high-tech industry continues to appeal to foreign investors and to benefit from the steady growth of worldwide markets." Holtzman also added that "Israeli VC funds, relying on this positive climate, are expected to raise new funds over the coming months which, in turn, will increase their investments in high-tech companies."

IVC Research Center is Israel’s leading research center providing business leaders with an unmatched wealth of data on Israeli venture capital, private equity and high-tech industries. Among IVC products and publications are the Israel Venture Capital Journal (IVCJ), IVC Yearbook and online database containing over 5,000 Israeli high-tech companies, venture capital funds, investment companies, as well as news updates.