Project Genesis: the world's largest passenger ship from Royal Caribbean
London, UK: Royal Caribbean International has announced plans for Project Genesis, the world's largest passenger ship. At 222,000 gross register tons the vessel will be nearly a half bigger than the Queen Mary 2, which holds the title.

Measuring 360 metres long (1,181ft) and standing 65m clear of the water, Project Genesis would also dwarf the Titanic.

The Aker Yards, of Finland, won the £616 million building contract, and said that the full complement of 5,400 passengers will be entertained by an unrivalled selection of activities, when she takes to the sea late in 2009. Genesis will be built at the Turku shipyard in western Finland.

Despite a spate of mishaps, affecting ships such as Queen Mary 2 cruising is thriving after a slump caused by the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the Sars virus and the war in Iraq.

According to the International Council of Cruise Lines, the number of passengers increased 10 per cent to 10.8 million in 2004, with the number of passengers growing by more than 8 per cent a year annually since 1980.

The biggest ship built remains the Norwegian-owned tanker Jahre Viking, which was built in Japan in 1979. More than 400 metres long and measuring 260,851 gross register tons, she has a cargo capacity (deadweight tonnage) of 564,763 tons.
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Time Warner to sell book division for US$537.5mn
New York, USA: Time Warner Inc. said yesterday that it would sell its division, the Time Warner Book Group, which is the country's fifth-largest publisher of general-interest books, for US$537.5mn to Lagardère. The French firm is a media and defense conglomerate that also owns the Hachette magazine and book groups.

The sale follows two years of strong growth in the book division. Although Time Warner does not break out the publishing unit's sales and profits, the company has said the book group earned record profit last year as sales rose well above US$500mn. The sale also comes as the billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn has been pressuring Time Warner to improve its financial performance and to shed assets,

Analysts said that the sale price for the Time Warner unit, at about one times revenue, was in line with expectations that the publishing business was not expected to grow quickly, reflecting a broad trend across the book publishing industry.

According to analysts, Lagardère could make better use of the company than Time Warner, because its global book business gives it better opportunities to exploit the purchase of world publishing rights from authors.

The sale comes three years after Time Warner tried and failed to sell the book group.

Lagardère is primarily a media company, with holdings that include Hachette Filipacchi, publisher of Elle, Première and Car and Driver magazines, and Hachette Livre, which two years ago bought Hodder Headline, one of the largest British publishing companies.

Lagardère also owns a minority stake in the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, which produces weapons systems, satellites, and military and commercial aircraft.

Time Warner has US$44bn in annual revenue, and the publishing business will not make much of a difference in its overall performance.

Parsons has been under pressure to show that he is managing the company aggressively in advance of a presentation planned for today by Icahn and his financial adviser, Bruce Wasserstein of Lazard. Icahn, who along with three hedge funds that hold some 3.3 percent of Time Warner's stock, hired Wasserstein to help mount a proxy fight at Time Warner's next annual meeting.

Last week Time Warner reported strong earnings gains and said it would double the pace of a share buyback program. Shares of Time Warner rose 17 cents yesterday, to US$18.57.
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Nippon Steel may back Arcelor
Tokyo, Japan: Nippon Steel Corp. (NSC) president Akio Mimura would appear to have extended his company's support to Luxembourg steelmaker Arcelor, in its fight against a hostile takeover by the Netherlands' Mittal Steel, the world's largest steelmaker.

According to sources, during a meeting on Sunday in Paris with chief executive officer Guy Dolle of Arcelor, the world's second largest steelmaker, Mimura made an said that Nippon's business relations with Arcelor should be deepened. Mimura and Dolle met prior to a regular meeting of executives at the International Iron and Steel Institute.

For the world's steel industry it was a matter of conjecture whether NSC, Japan's largest steel company, would side with Mittal Steel or Arcelor. NSC runs a steel-plate processing operation jointly with Mittal Steel in the United States.

If Mittal's acquisition attempt is successful, the two companies' shared strategy of supplying steel to European and Chinese markets would be greatly affected. Mimura, according to sources, however, would appear to have scotched speculation about NSC acting as a white knight for Arcelor, saying that he would not try to make NSC bigger through company acquisitions.
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Toshiba buys out Westinghouse Electric
London, UK: Affirming its faith on the future of the nuclear power industry, Toshiba, the Japanese electronics company, announced on Monday that it had agreed to buy Westinghouse Electric, the atomic energy division of British Nuclear Fuels, for US$5.4bn.

Interestingly, the purchase price is about three times higher than analysts had estimated for Westinghouse in July, allowing Toshiba to outbid rivals like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and General Electric.

Nuclear power not only fell out of favor after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, but also lost popularity because of universal concerns about the financial and environmental costs of dealing with radioactive waste. But it is now increasingly seen as an attractive alternative to sources like coal and oil as energy demand increases around the world.

Toshiba's president and chief executive, Atsutoshi Nishida, speaking at a news conference in London, estimated that demand for nuclear power would grow 50 percent by 2020.

The International Energy Agency, which advises 26 energy-consuming countries, has estimated that more than US$200bn will be spent on nuclear power worldwide by 2030.

Westinghouse, based in Pittsburgh, has 8,500 employees worldwide. The company makes pressurized-water nuclear reactors, the most commonly used type, and the fuel for them. It also provides maintenance and repairs. Westinghouse estimated that half the world's nuclear plants and 60 percent of those in the United States used its technology.

Toshiba is already a leading maker of another commonly used type of reactor, which uses boiling water. Toshiba said it would acquire 100 percent of Westinghouse, but it is in discussions to sell off minority stakes to other companies, which were not named.

As a result of the deal, Toshiba estimated that its nuclear business would triple by 2015. The company said it would pay for the deal over three years using available cash flow.

British Nuclear Fuels, which is owned by the British government, has been selling off power-generating assets to concentrate on its nuclear decommissioning work.
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