Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, December 25, 1997
Outrigger, diving group form marketing team
Outrigger Hotels & Resorts has formed a partnership with the Professional Association of Diving Instructors and its travel network to market Hawaii dive vacations.PADI affiliated dive operations will offer scuba diving courses and certifications, along with dive package selections for Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island through the PADI Travel Network, said Bill Hamm, manager of the PADI International Resort Association.
Additional dive marketing opportunities will become available in the next two years as Outrigger opens hotels in Guam, Palau, French Polynesia and Fiji, said Bryan Klum, Outrigger's marketing director.
S.Korea gets IMF cash sooner than expected
SEOUL -- South Koreans awoke today to news that $10 billion in desperately needed loans will be arriving sooner than expected -- and that unemployment is up and more hardship is ahead.The money is part of the $57 billion bailout deal put together by the International Monetary Fund. In return for the early loans -- $2 billion from the IMF by Monday and $8 billion from the Group of Seven industrial nations by early January -- South Korea is to expedite economic reforms.
With stock prices plummeting, fear has mounted this week that South Korea would default on its short-term foreign debt, estimated at $100 billion. Seoul's markets were closed today for Christmas.
"This is a welcome respite," the YTN all-news cable channel said in a commentary today.
Finance and Economy Minister Lim Chang-yuel said the loans will enable South Korea to meet its most urgent short-term obligations, payments due in December and January.
Merrill Lynch may start Japan retail brokerage
TOKYO -- U.S. brokerage Merrill Lynch & Co. said today it is considering a retail brokerage unit in Japan -- a lucrative market with an estimated 1,200 trillion yen ($9.23 trillion) in individual assets."Over a long period of time, we have considered many alternatives for entering into the retail business in Japan," Merrill Lynch Japan said. "We believe this may be an appropriate time for us to seriously explore opportunities available in Japan."
Merrill, which now sells stocks and bonds in Japan only to institutional investors, said it may hire current and former employees of failed Yamaichi Securities for the new venture.