(Level B2, “Market Leader Intermediate”)

(Level B2, “Market Leader Intermediate”) (Level B2, “Market Leader Intermediate”) WRITING Read the task and look at the suggested procedure below. • You work for a company that sells electrical goods. You have recently visited a potential supplier in Slovakia. Look at the memo and your hand-written notes. • Write a 120 - 140 word report recommending whether your company should deal with the supplier or not. To: Alan From: Georgina Date: 16 February 2001 Re: Your visit to Ludova Technologies Slovensko Alan Here's the information about Ludova Technologies. It isn't much, I’ m afraid, but it's all we have. The company is 15 years old and employs about 20 people. It's located in the south west of Slovakia, on the Austrian border. They make electrical goods such as pocket radios, but we're not really sure what else. Can you find out the following and write a report recommending what we should do? Don’t forget to make the final recommendation.. The factory • What are the production facilities like? Old equipment, but • What is the production capacity? modernisation planned.. Quite low, due to old machines Products Wide range, good quality • What is the product range like?. Production times Long delivery times – explain why • How quickly can they deliver?_ Your flight and hotel are booked and Mr Pavol Kukura will meet you at the airport on Friday. Good luck! LISTENING You are going to hear part of a presentation about risks in international trade. You have 30 seconds to read the questions below before you listen. You will hear the presentation twice. 1 The speaker is talking to: a) students of business administration. b) export managers from large companies. c) people who own their own businesses. d) business people without a lot of experience of exporting. 2 Mark all the topics the speaker mentions. a) receiving payment b) banking procedures c) avoiding disputes d) Insurance e) exchange rate risk f) delivery problems You will now hear the next part of the presentation on risks in international trade. You have 30 seconds to read the questions below before you listen. You will hear the presentation twice. 3 Of the four payment methods covered in the talk, which one does the speaker say has absolutely no risks for exporters? a) advance payment b) bills for collection c) letter of credit d) open trade account 4 Which of these payment methods does the speaker say has fewer risks for exporters? a) bills for collection b) letter of credit c) open trade account 5 Mark the following statements T (true) or F (false). a) Advance payment is risk-free for the importer. b) If advance payment is agreed, the exporter does not dispatch the goods until payment has been received. c) Documentary credit is another way to refer to a letter of credit. d) When the letter of credit payment method is used, the exporter sends all the documents direct to the importer. e) A letter of credit means that the importer's bank guarantees payment. f) The letter of credit method may involve some risks for the exporter if the documents are not correct. READING Read the article about South African Breweries, a company which makes beer, then answer these questions. 1 Mark each of the following statements T (true) or F(false). a) SAB has expanded rapidly outside South Africa since the end of apartheid. b) SAB wants to leave the South African market. c) SAB dominates the market in South Africa. d) SAB has good opportunities for growth in its home market. e) SAB sells beer in eastern Europe. f) In South Africa, SAB is only involved in making beer. g) SAB has been unable to m?k? a profit from its activities in China. h) There are many small brewers in the International market. 2 Why does SAB want to move to London? Mark all the answers that are correct. a) The U K is its largest market. b) It needs to be inside the European Union. c) It wants to become part of the global beer industry. d) It wants to compete equally with International brewers. e) It hasn't been very successful in South Africa. f) Exchange controls restrict the company in moving its funds abroad. 3 What is the meaning of languish (second to last line)? Choose the best answer. a) expand further b) lose strength c) carry on in the same way d) have to stop making beer SAB moves to London South African Breweries, the world's fourth largest brewer, is about to relocate to London where it hopes to raise capital by selling shares on the London Stock Exchange. Since the fall of apartheid, the brewer has expanded rapidly outside South Africa into emerging markets in eastern Europe, Asia and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. SAB's biggest move came in 1994 when the group jumped continents by entering the post-communist world of eastern Europe with the ac?uisition of a brewer in Hungary. It has since added brewing interests in Romania, Slovakia, Russia and Poland. It has also expanded into Asia with shares in four Chinese breweries through joint venture, and is negotiating to buy a fifth. 'Unlike most other brewers, we make money in China,' says Graham Mackay, Managing Director of SAB. However, its ability to grow internationally is limited by exchange controls that restrict the use of cash from its South African brewing activities to fund overseas expansion. 'We must ac?uire access to the global share market to further growth in our international brewing business,' says Mr Mackay. SAB is not about to pull out of South Africa, where it also owns the country's largest soft drinks bottling business and its largest hotels and gaming business. And it believes the core brewing business has room for further growth - despite its market share of 98%. 'More than 45% of the population is under 19 and yet to enter their beer-drinking years,' says Mr Mackay. 'More and more people are moving from the countryside into the towns. They earn more money and they choose to buy beer with it.' One of the main purposes of listing the company on the London Stock Exchange is to fund further ac?uisitions in emerging markets, particularly in Poland. But the group also wants the freedom to be an active participant in the consolidation of the global brewing industry where the ten largest brewers control little more than a third of the market. 'We must participate in that process on e?ual terms with other international brewers or we will languish,' says Mr Mackay. Read these four short newspaper articles. A South Korea's carmakers yesterday revealed plunging sales figures for last year amid the worst economic recession for decades. Hyundai Motor, the biggest carmaker, reported sales down 29.4%. Exports fell year on year by 4.9%, while domestic sales plummeted 52.3%.Daewoo Motor fared a little better, seeing an overall drop in sales of 7.8%. Exports rose 20.4% on the strength of robust sales of its Matiz mini-car. Domestic sales slumped 44.4%. Financially-troubled Kia Motors, soon to be taken over by Hyundai, saw a 33% drop in sales led by a 53.3% fall among domestic buyers. Exports fell 10.9%. B Expectations that US car sales will remain strong this year have prompted Germany's leading carmakers, which dominate luxury imports, to forecast new sales records for the coming year. Jens Neumann, Volkswagen board member for North America, said sales should reach almost 300,000 units. Last year, VW sold 218,000 cars, its highest figure since 1981, when it still built vehicles in the US. 'We believe we can continue to grow at double-digit rates,' he predicted. The strong US performance underpinned an 11% rise in VW's world sales to more than 4.7m units, taking VW's world market share from 10.4 to 11.4%. C Societe Generale de Surveillance, the Switzerland-based group that is the world's biggest testing and inspection company, is facing one of the toughest tests in its 120-year history. Profits have collapsed, the dividend has been axed and the group can no longer rely on its lucrative government contract business, which provided three-?uarters of last year's profits, to subsidise under-performing operations. The group has a new Chairman, a new Chief Executive, and an almost completely new board of directors, after Elisabeth Salina Amorini, a member of one of the company's founding families, was forced to step down as Chairman in September. SGS also has a new corporate strategy, which involves cutting up to 3,500 jobs, or 12% of its staff. D Full-year profits at Xaar, the Cambridge-based ink j et printing technology group, will be 'significantly below market expectations'. In September, the directors said that year-end results would be dependent on the outcome and timing of licence fee negotiations. In the event, no new licences were signed last year. Last July, Xaar initiated legal proceedings against Calcomp, claiming that the US company's CrystalJet line of ink j et printers infringed Xaar's patents. Xaar shares yesterday rose 4.5p to 60.5p. 1) Match each of these headlines with one of the articles, 1, 2, 3 or 4. a) Car sales tumble .......................... b) New board faces hard decisions .......................... c) End of year results expected to be down .......................... d) Record sales for the coming year .......................... 2) Which article reports on each of these items? Choose 1, 2, 3 or 4. a) An increase in market share. b) Plans to reduce the number of staff in company. c) An increase in the share price of a company despite its falling profit. d) A comparison in the performance of companies in the same industry sector e) A company engaged in a law suit.