Bi-Mart employees approve plan to buy out retail chain.
Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard That cashier who helped you at the Bi-Mart checkout stand, or the sporting goods clerk who showed you to the fishing lures? Chances are, they own the place now. Employees of the 64-store retail chain decided last Thursday...

Banks sign NSC debt restructuring.
Byline: FERDIE J. MAGLALANG President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo approved in principle yesterday the restructuring of the National Steel Corp. (NSC) which would, among others, make available some P650 million for the accrued benefits due its 4,000 former employes once it starts operations early in January. ...

Local economy has big stake in future of Bi-Mart.
Byline: RETAIL NOTEBOOK By Edward Russo The Register-Guard It remains to be seen whether Bi-Mart becomes an employee-owned company; workers now are studying whether they want to use part of their retirement savings to buy the discount retailer under an employee stock ownership plan proposed by the...

Cruising.
Byline: The Register-Guard The Eugene-Springfield area has learned through bitter experience that telephone call centers can be here today and gone tomorrow. For that reason, restraint has tempered the enthusiasm surrounding rumors that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. might open a new customer service center in Lane County....

News In Brief.
Peso appreciates to P50.645 The peso appreciated against the U.S. dollar to P50.645, the weighted average rate pegged at the Philippine Dealing System of the Bankers Association of the Philippines yesterday, from P50.80 the previous day. The local currency closed at P50.59. The total volume amounted to...

No substitute for diversity.
Byline: The Register-Guard The saddest stories to be found amid the rubble of Enron's collapse are those of employees who had invested their retirement funds in the company's stock. Many have seen their once-substantial savings melt away to nearly nothing as high-flying Enron skidded into bankruptcy. Lawyers...

International.
CLOROX TERMINATES JV WITH BOMBRIL S.A. * BRAZIL: Household and institutional product maker The Clorox Company, Oakland, CA, has terminated its agreement to form a joint venture with Bombril S.A., the leading Brazilian cleaning utensils and household cleaner business. Clorox said in late January it would buy...

The cost of deregulation.
I BELIEVE IN GOD and I believe in free markets," Kenneth Lay told a religion editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune early last year. Not surprisingly, Lay's devotion to deregulated markets became an article of faith for Enron, the Houston-based energy company he heads. Enron's collapse in December, one...

By Alex Sloley.
The report's conclusion is that US companies are nearly twice as profitable as their non-US competitors. Consequently, the stock prices of the US companies are relatively higher when measured by a whole range of valuation criteria, including the classic price/earnings and price/growth ratios. And most expensive of all, relative...

IT Services: Valtech Builds on E-Commerce Reputation.
"No one has either the skills or the experience to do it all single handed," commented Eric Mouilleron, European managing director of Valtech SA the Paris, France based consulting group that says it's busy partnering with bigger players and buying smaller specialist software shops. Last month Valtech acquired the...