Storied Park Gets Italian Face-Lift

ALTAVILLA VICENTINA, ITALY — Alberto Zamperla sweeps through the cavernous workshop here where his amusement rides are made while workers measure and bang and solder enormous platforms, oddly shaped beams and assorted fiberglass vehicles.

Spring is a busy time for his company, and attractions are being prepared for the summer season that is about to open in theme parks around the world.

This year, however, one destination has Mr. Zamperla racing against the clock: Coney Island in New York City, where in a few weeks he will present a new amusement park featuring 22 rides, including the Tickler, a family-oriented roller coaster; the whirly Mega Disko; and Air Race, a heart-gulping aerobatic experience.

Coney Island is the largest investment yet in the 50-year history of Zamperla Group. Zamperla is the majority shareholder of Central Amusement International, or C.A.I., a New Jersey company that signed an agreement in February with the city of New York to build and manage the amusement area. C.A.I. has spent $15 million on the refurbishment of the park, about half of the $30 million it expects to invest.

“Ride manufacturers have been operating rides in parks or fairgrounds for many years,” said Andreas Veilstrup Andersen, executive director of the European office of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. “However, a project as big as Coney Island is very unusual.”

Time has been tight, with the park’s opening set for the end of May.

“We had a pretty good idea of what we could produce on time,” said Mr. Zamperla, the chief executive. “There’s a lot of pressure, because all eyes are on us. Things just can’t be good, they have to be perfect.”

Luigi De Vita, managing director of the company, added: “When we’re under pressure, we give the best of ourselves.”

Theme parks and amusement parks have a global lure, with about 758 million visitors worldwide in 2007, according to the latest study from PricewaterhouseCoopers on the outlook for entertainment and media. Worldwide revenue in 2007 was $24 billion, the study said.

Zamperla, according to industry experts, is ranked among the top five manufacturers of amusement park rides.

The Coney Island project will be called Luna Park, after the original playground that stood there until World War II. Drawings for the new main gate on Surf Avenue meticulously mimic the original design, albeit in a flashier revamp.

The park at Coney Island “had its glory but lacked an innovative spirit,” Mr. Zamperla said of a site that in recent decades had become a little down at heel. In February, C.A.I. won the bid on a 10-year lease to build and operate the park, which sits on a city-owned lot.

“Their specific proposal was a nice blend of honoring the history of Coney Island, while developing it as a modern 21st-century amusement park,” said Seth W. Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corp.

Zamperla was chosen because it had a sound track record in operating amusement parks, including the Victorian Gardens, a children’s amusement area in Central Park in New York. And it was known as the producer of “some of the most exciting rides in the world,” Mr. Pinksy said.

The Zamperla family has been building amusement park attractions at Altavilla Vicentina since the early 1960s.

Alberto’s grandfather, Umberto Zamperla, opened one of the first movie houses in Italy, then moved into carnival attractions. His father, Antonio Zamperla, worked in traveling shows before deciding to settle in this Veneto town to start inventing and manufacturing rides.

Alberto Zamperla, 58, the eldest of five children, took the show on the road, so to speak, and there are now factories or sales offices in several countries, including the United States, China, Russia and Dubai. His group sells to customers in more than 90 countries and now exports about 95 percent of its products.

There are about 185 employees in Italy, with an additional 270 around the world.The nuts and bolts of the business — its administration as well as its main manufacturing activities — are at the headquarters near Vicenza, an industrial district that is the third-largest exporting center in Italy, according to the local chamber of commerce. The area produces goods including gold, textiles and furniture.

Carmine Tripodi, who teaches strategic and entrepreneurial management at Bocconi University in Milan, said Zamperla was representative of Veneto’s fertile manufacturing tradition only “up to a certain point,” as it had taken the leap into the international market. “That is not so common,” Mr. Tripodi said, “and one of the great challenges is the measure by which these businesses are able to be protagonists in other markets.”

A stroll though the headquarters at Altavilla Vicentina hints at the complexity of producing amusement park rides for the world’s major theme parks, including various Disney Parks (“In our business, it’s the best reference you can have,” Mr. Zamperla said), Six Flags theme parks and malls worldwide. Even the late Michael Jackson’s Neverland estate has Zamperla rides.

On average, the company spends about €1 million, or $1.33 million, a year designing new products. Attractions are designed using complicated computer algorithms and mathematical models and then built and tested here. Zamperla has dozens of patents on items like merry-go-round decorations and roller coaster seats.

“This is where ideas are born,” Mr. Zamperla beamed as he looked at the Moto Coaster, a ride being prepared for a dinosaur theme park in Changzhou, China. Each ride requires about a year from design to delivery, he said, and can cost anywhere from €20,000 to €6 million. The Moto Coaster sells for €3.5 million and will be one of the new attractions at Coney Island next year.

Safety, and compliance with international standards, is an obvious priority. Accidents are rare, but they do happen, and Zamperla has not been spared. “You build as safely as you possibly can — the laws regulating amusement rides are more severe than for automobiles,” Mr. Zamperla said.

The global economic turmoil has been felt in the amusement ride industry, though in 2009 the effects were felt less in Europe than in other parts of the world, said Mr. Andersen, of the amusement park association. Last year, about 4.5 million people visited amusement parks in Europe.

“There’s money to spend on investments,” Mr. Andersen said, which makes him optimistic about the industry’s future. “It’s a resilient business that has proven it can reinvent itself over the last 80 and 90 years, and I am confident it will continue to do so,” he said.

Demand is growing in new markets, too, especially in the Middle and Far East. Zamperla has a factory and sales offices in Suzhou, China, to serve the fast-growing Chinese market. “We’re not going to make the mistake of underestimating the Chinese,” he said.

The factory in China produces about €4 million worth of rides for the Chinese market. He exports about the same amount from Italy to China and hopes to reach €20 million in sales in two years.

And in well-established markets like the United States, long-term success in the amusement ride industry depends on novelty, Mr. Andersen said.

This year, for example, Coney Island will see the debut of Air Race, an airborne experience that the company describes as “the ultimate thrill ride,” alongside more placid family fare. Next year, new rides are expected in the Scream Zone, an addition to the park that will feature several Zamperla roller coasters intended mostly for teenagers.

“In the end, all we want to do is build rides that people will enjoy,” Mr. Zamperla said. And Coney Island, he said, “will be the perfect showcase” for the company.

Greece Calls for Activation of Financial Rescue

ATHENS — Describing his country’s economy as “a sinking ship,” Greece’s prime minister formally requested Friday an international bailout, testing the solidarity of the European Union as never before.“We drew up a plan, we took difficult and painful measures,” Prime Minister George A. Papandreou said in a nationally televised address. “But the markets did not respond.”

Worries about Greece’s runaway debt — its budget deficit last year added an estimated 13.6 percent of gross domestic product to an overall debt that already exceeded 100 percent of G.D.P. — have pushed interest rates on Greek bonds above those of emerging countries like India and the Philippines that are generally considered riskier.

Many investors are convinced that Athens, facing years of fiscal austerity and potential economic stagnation, will ultimately be required to reschedule its debts and renegotiate terms with lenders, a step short of a full default.

“This clearly buys Greece quite a lot of time,” said Julian Callow, chief economist at Barclays Capital in London.

But further out, Mr. Callow added, perhaps beyond 2011, “this doesn’t rule out some kind of rescheduling.”

That would involve negotiations with banks and bondholders in which Athens might try to reduce its obligations or push repayments further into the future.

The urgency in the Greek request was suggested from the fact that Mr. Papandreou was speaking from the Aegean island of Megisti rather than the capital. “The time has come for us to ask our partners in the E.U. to activate the mechanism we formulated together.”

He was referring to an emergency aid package arranged two weeks ago in Brussels. The plan foresees up to €30 billion, or $40 billion, in loans from Greece’s euro-zone partners, and up to €15 billion from the International Monetary Fund.

The activation of the E.U.-I.M.F. rescue plan, Mr. Papandreou said, “will send a strong message to the markets that the E.U. is not playing their game and will not leave its currency at risk.”

The announcement means that money from the I.M.F. can be released once the board of the fund has approved the terms.

“We are prepared to move expeditiously on this request,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the I.M.F. managing director, said in a statement issued in Washington, where a meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers is taking place.

The loans pledged by Greece’s euro-zone partners are still awaiting approval by legislators in some countries. That includes Germany, which has the euro-area’s most important economy. Athens may end up receiving its money in bits and pieces from its partners rather than in a single check, said an E.U. official, who was not permitted to speak publicly.

The idea of bailing out Greece has been highly unpopular with German voters and may still face a legal challenge before that country’s Constitutional Court.

But the Finance Ministry in Berlin said the German government was “ready to act” to clear the way in Parliament.

“We in Germany are pledged to solidarity and we will show it,” Michael Offer, a spokesman for the Finance Ministry, said. “We’re doing this to stabilize the euro, which means it’s also in our own national interest.”

French and German banks are among the biggest holders of Greece’s sovereign debt, and a default would weigh heavily on their balance sheets.

Still, with an important regional election approaching at home, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the aid would be granted only after Greece had negotiated a new austerity program with the Union, the European Central Bank and the I.M.F. — and after they had determined that Greece had no other options.

Those talks began this week in Athens and are expected to conclude in a matter of days.

“Only when these steps have been taken can we talk about aid as well as the kind of aid and amounts,” she said in Berlin. “It is not direct help from the government budget, but rather guarantees.”Mr. Papandreou did not mention any new budget cuts in his speech. The government has already implemented two austerity packages aimed at cutting spending and increasing revenue, which have fueled unrest from unions.Greece has near-term financing pressures. It requires up to €10 billion in May to cover redemptions, coupon payments and its primary government deficit, according to investors.

The Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, insisted that the money would be there, “without a doubt,” and that Athens would be able to repay bonds coming due on May 19.

“Greece will have no borrowing problems on May 19,” he said in Athens before leaving for Washington.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Greek government bonds initially fell to 8.1 percent Friday after the reports, before rising again to 8.7 percent. On Thursday, it touched a new high of close to 9 percent.

The euro rose against the dollar after briefly touching the lowest point in a year early in the day, but then dipped again amid uncertainty over the timing of the aid.

The Athens composite share closed down 0.2 percent, reversing early gains of almost 4 percent.

More broadly, some investors fear that the Greek crisis has opened fault lines for the currency bloc that might be difficult to close.

“At some stage the euro area will arrive at a fork in the road,” said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank in London, “as some economies are structurally different to others.”

For Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal, the financial crisis has highlighted the constraints of euro membership. Unable to devalue their currencies to help regain industrial competitiveness, and impelled by E.U. fiscal agreements to meet certain budget targets, they are facing years of belt-tightening just when their economies could use a lift from additional spending.

Other countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Austria have kept deficits down while retaining an edge in global markets, in part of by restraining domestic wage increases. France lies somewhere between the two camps.

Mr. Lyons said the long-term choices for the euro area appeared stark: either push on toward a political union, handing budgetary power to a central authority, or form a “two-speed” block.

Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit Group, said Greece “should get some benefit of doubt as the I.M.F. program gets under way.”

He added that markets “will remain nervous and will most likely require to see several months of track record of successful adjustment before becoming more confident that debt sustainability is within reach and a restructuring can be avoided.”

The bailout package has raised a host of technical as well as political issues for the euro area, because the euro’s founding treaties insisted that no such step could be taken.

Berlin will raise its share of the money on the markets through KfW, the state development bank. Guarantees for those loans require approval by lawmakers.

In France, which is making the next-biggest contribution, the government has revised its 2010 budget to authorize a loan of up to €6.3 billion this year. French lawmakers will discuss the contribution next month.

“The process is under way,” the French economy minister, Christine Lagarde, said in Washington. “Everybody has to do their homework now.”

California utility plows ahead with midsize solar

California utility Pacific Gas & Electric got approval for an initiative that seeks to ramp up solar-power production but sidestep the permitting hurdles of large-scale solar and the expense of rooftop panels.
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved a five-year program where PG&E will install solar photovoltaic arrays between 1 megawatt and 20 megawatts in size. In all, the installations will have a capacity of 500 megawatts worth of solar, enough to power 150,000 homes, according to PG&E.The approach is to build midsize solar arrays and locate them near power substations, which means that no new transmissions lines will need to be built. Constructing smaller, distributed units also simplifies the environmental permitting process, another serious hurdle to building power plant-size solar projects."Smaller scale projects can avoid many of the pitfalls that have plagued larger renewable projects in California, including permitting and transmission challenges," CPUC president Michael Peevey said in a statement.
California has a renewable portfolio standard where utilities need to get 20 percent of their electricity by the end of this year. PG&E will own and operate about half of the installations and purchase power from independent developers, it said.
The technology used for these projects will be familiar solar photovoltaic panels, but the program could also see the use of concentrating photovoltaic arrays, where mirrors concentrate light to draw more electricity from high-end solar cells. Amonix, a company in that field, raised $129 million earlier this week to pursue the utility business.

KSE-100 Index gains 11 points

KARACHI: Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) witnessed a weak day as stock prices fluctuated throughout the session on Monday.

The benchmark KSE 100-share Index gained 11 points to finish the first trading day of the week at 10,669.

Today’s trade began with positive numbers and the major Index was, at one stage, seen floating at 10,691 points level. However, later profit taking in energy stocks took away the earlier gains, leaving the Index only with 11 points up.

The trade volume was recorded at 160 million shares with Lotte Pakistan topping the list of actives which an increase of paisas 30 to close at Rs12.40.

Power tariff need to be increased: Dr Hafeez

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's Finance Adviser Dr Hafeez Shaikh said if power tariff was not increased we would need to arrange more money to reduce deficit and satisfy World Bank and International Monetary Fund to get $ 900 million for curbing energy crisis.

He was addressing a seminar held at National University of Science and Technology.

He stressed the need to bridge the supply and demand gap of electricity. 'Six-point agenda has been chalked out to overcome energy crisis.'

International donors will not help until power theft is stopped, the advisor said.

Aviation industry suffers $200 million daily

LONDON: The aviation industry sharply criticized European governments on Monday for their handling of airport closures, saying there was ``no coordination and no leadership'' in the volcanic ash crisis that shut down European airports for a fifth straight day.

The International Air Transport Association says the airport lockdowns are costing the aviation industry at least $200 million a day and affecting millions of travelers since the volcano in Iceland begun erupting Wednesday.

Some smaller airports reopened, and European officials had hoped that flights could return to about 50 percent of normal on Monday ifthe skies were clearing.

But authorities in Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands home to three of Europe's largest airports said their air space was still closed. Britain said it was keeping flight restrictions on through until at least early Tuesday, while Italy briefly lifted restrictions in the north then quickly closed again Monday after conditions worsened.

Pakistani July-March c/a deficit narrows 68pc

KARACHI: Pakistan's current account deficit in the first nine months of the 2009/10 fiscal year was a provisional $2.702 billion, the central bank said on Monday.

That compared with a deficit of $8.379 billion in the same period last year, the State Bank of Pakistan said.

"Higher export receipts were the key reason behind the narrowing of the current account deficit," said Asif Qureshi, director at Invisor Securities Ltd.

The trade deficit for the July to March period of the 2009/10 fiscal year was $10.92 billion compared with $12.74 billion in the same period last year.

Pakistan recorded a provisional current account deficit of $40 million in March compared with a provisional $50 million in February.

In a quarterly report on the economy released last month, the central bank lowered its forecast for the 2009/10 current account deficit to 3.2-3.8 percent of gross domestic product, from previous estimates of 3.7-4.7 percent.

Analysts, however, said there could be some widening in the current account deficit.

"The current trend may not be sustained for long if oil prices continue to hold above $80, so we may see some deficit widening in coming months," said Qureshi.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) emergency loan package of $7.6 billion agreed in November 2008 helped avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves.

The IMF increased the loan to $11.3 billion in July and the central bank received a fourth tranche of $1.2 billion on Dec. 28.

The IMF has assured Pakistan it will approve the release of the next tranche at a board meeting on May 3, the country's prime minister's office said last week. The next tranche is of $1.2 billion.