The Newsletter

Another Sweet Factory is about to open in the region, this one in Bellevue Square. This is the place with the huge visible bins of candy. Check Westlake Center; it has one.

What makes this interesting to me is the money behind it. It's privately held but has venture capital money from Trinity Ventures, San Mateo, Calif., the company that helped local companies Costco and Starbucks to get under way.

In fact, Jeff Brotman, Costco chairman, and James Sinegal, Costco president, are both investors as well. Brotman's Costco Group and Ralph Shaw's Shaw Venture Capital have joined seven other venture capital funds to pump more than $26 million into the company. Apparently no plans to take this sweet concept public, but one to watch given the track record of the present investors.

More fallout from the high yen, this time in South Korea. Japan's Showa Line recently ordered a large ship from Hyundai Heavy Industries.

The South Korean shipbuilders were caught off guard. Japan has always bought from Japanese shipbuilders. But Showa will save almost $10 million with Korean construction.

South Korean exporters are seeing sales soar in other areas as well, especially autos and computers. The yen has appreciated 18 percent this year against the won. The currency shift will improve the nation's export sales by $3 billion.

That's welcome news for South Korean President Kim Young-sam, who has been trying to light a fire under his nation's sluggish economy through bold financial deregulation and other stimulative measures.

Here's a name to file away if you are interested in Asian investment: Robert Lloyd George. Oxford educated and blue-blooded, Lloyd George has a reputation for spotting investment potential.

After establishing himself as one of the savviest money managers in Asia, Lloyd George struck out on his own 18 months ago with a money management company specializing in developing markets.

Since then, Lloyd George Management has attracted $520 million and its mutual funds are ranked among the best performing in the region.

He was with Indosuez Asia Investment, a money management firm in Hong Kong. He was among the first to tap Malaysia and southeast Asian markets with his Malacca Fund in 1989, and he targeted India and Sri Lanka with a Himalayan Fund in 1990.

Last month Sierra On-Line President Ken Williams began moving 120 employees from Oakhurst, Calif., to Seattle, blaming an inability to attract executives and a dearth of office space.

Now officials at The ImagiNation Network, the company's hot new personal computer network spin-off, say similar problems are hampering its breakneck growth and may cause them to consider leaving Oakhurst as well.

No mention of Seattle as a destination. Yet.

One industry's problems may be another's opportunity. Restaurant owners are worried about the new budget bill and the fact that business can deduct only 50 percent of a meal for business purposes. The provision takes effect after Dec. 31.

But fly clients in on a private jet, meet them with a limo, give them a gift and whisk them to your office for a key meeting and all that is fully deductible.

The rationale is that there is a personal element to a meal and personal expenditures should not be deductible.

Corporations are not trusted to tell the truth in times of crisis, says a survey by the public relations firm Porter Novelli. The media does not fare much better, said the survey of 1,000 adults.

Fifty-seven percent think companies either withhold information or lie when a crisis hits; only 19 percent say companies are truthful. When a company says "no comment," 65 percent translate that to "guilty."

Opinions on the media: 57 percent say they act like "vultures circling for the kill," 24 percent say they are more like "a wild pack of dogs." Only 16 percent view the media as neutral observers.

The most remembered corporate crisis? The Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Newsletter column by Stephen H. Dunphy appears Tuesday to Friday in the Business Section of The Times. His Economic Memo runs in the Sunday Business Section. To send items, write to The Newsletter, Stephen H. Dunphy, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. Phone: 464-2365. Fax: 382-8879. InfoLine: 464-2000 category 5767.

The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce continues to grapple with whether to endorse tax initiatives 601 and 602. Small business members of the chamber generally support the initiatives. Others worry about state services if they pass. A decision will come at this month's meeting. Tough call.

A newspaper in Sweden gave five stock analysts and a chimpanzee the equivalent of $1,250 each to make as much money as they could on the stock market. The chimp won. After a month, the chimpanzee, Ola, had a $190 gain. Runner-up Mats Jonnerhag, publisher of the newsletter Bourse Insight, had a $130 gain.