| Federal Signal to Acquire PIPS Technology
OAK BROOK, Ill., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Federal Signal Corporation (NYSE: FSS) , a leader in advancing security and well-being, today announced the acquisition of PIPS Technology, a privately-held developer and manufacturer of automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) systems. The cash purchase price of $115 million was financed using existing cash balances and funds available under the Company's revolving credit facility. PIPS Technology, with offices in Hampshire, United Kingdom, and Knoxville, Tenn., is a global leader in the design and manufacture of ALPR systems and optical character recognition software. ALPR solutions are used in control and surveillance applications in markets such as traffic and tolling, law enforcement, public safety and access control. ALPR-enabled cameras are used on emergency vehicles and mounted on stationary support structures at access entry and tolling points to capture license plate details for tolling, congestion zone charging and law enforcement purposes.
Argentina and the IMF: will they benefit from hindsight?
Since taking office in May 2003, Argentina's new president, Nestor Kirchner, has launched campaigns to reduce tax evasion and to reform the notoriously corrupt and inefficient state pension system. He has shaken up the Supreme Court and the leadership of the armed forces and let it be known that he will support any international efforts to extradite human rights abusers from Argentina's 1970s “dirty war". All of this signals that Kirchner is serious about moving Argentina forward and putting behind it the dark days that the country has experienced since December 2001, when President Fernando de la Rua resigned in disgrace amid a collapsing economy, currency, and bank system. The economy grew a respectable 5.4% in the year ending 30 March 2003. The government's budget performance is easily beating the economic targets it promised the International Monetary Fund (IMF) it would make, in return for the IMF rolling over billions of dollars that came due during the crisis.
Travel packages reflecting loonie's flight
A guy went into a bookstore the other day to buy greeting card. The price in Canadian dollars was higher than the one in U.S., so he asked, tongue-in-cheek, if he could pay in American. The clerk said no. Prices for many goods don't reflect our loonie's flight to parity and beyond, but that's not the case in the travel business. Rates for tours with elements priced in U.S. dollars are being reduced. Same goes for ones based on other other currencies whose value has dropped against our dollar. One small specialty tour operator lowered the prices of all his winter trips. But his biggest cuts were to group tours to New Zealand, whose dollar has dropped by about 10 cents since last winter, and Australia, whose dollar is down about a nickel. Toronto-based Goway is offering the US Goway-Qantas Aussie Airpass to Canadian residents instead of the much more expensive Canadian Airpass.
Well-Equipped for the Long Run
Terex's sales there, however, are running at just $15 million annually, less than 1% of its total sales of the product. The issue in China is cost. A $30,000 Genie platform is as expensive as 15 to 30 Chinese construction workers, each of whom might earn just $2,000 or even just $1,000 a year. Thus, many Chinese construction firms favor sometimes-unstable bamboo scaffolding. Still, DeFeo contends, the Chinese and Indian markets hold huge promise. As wages rise and life in the developing world comes to be more highly valued, Terex should benefit. .
Yuan rises 0.34 percent on journal report
The yuan rose the most since China ended its fixed exchange rate to the US dollar in 2005 as the government signaled faster gains to cool the economy and curb inflation. The currency climbed as much as 0.43 percent after the official China Securities Journal cited Ba Shusong (ƪQ), a Cabinet researcher, as calling for a stronger yuan to curb prices of imported fuel and food. Last Friday, the central bank called for the market to play a greater role in setting the exchange rate. "The economy is overheating in at least some regions," Yu Yongding (Eéw), the director of the World Economics and Politics Institute in Beijing and a former central bank monetary policy committee member said in an interview yesterday. "The central bank now has more room to let the yuan rate float with more flexibility." The yuan strengthened 0.34 percent to 7.3192 per dollar as of 2:52pm in Shanghai, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.
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