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BUSINESS IN ASIA TODAY

NEC, Hyundai end chip patent dispute
SEOUL - South Korea's Hyundai Electronics Industry Ltd. (KSE:00660) announced Monday it has settled a one-year dispute with Japan's NEC Corp. over alleged infringement of memory chip patents by each company. The announcment followed the recent agreement signed between Hyundai and NEC, under which the two competitors are allowed to use all memory chip patents held by both companies.

In December, 1997, NEC filed suit with the district court in Virginia, U.S., against Hyundai for alleged infringement of patents. Hyundai, in turn, also took steps to initiate a patent infringement case against NEC.

Korea's POSCO slims down
S KOREA'S POHANG IRON & STEEL CO SLIMS DOWN OPERATIONS SEOUL - Pohang Iron & Steel Co. (POSCO, KSE:05490) will suspend construction of the second mini-mill in its Kwangyang Mill and scrap plans to launch steel plate plants abroad, the company said. Kwangyang's fifth blast furnace mill project will be completed by March but its operation will be put on hold for the time being.

Its overseas projects including the 100,000-ton-a-year steel plate plant in Dalian and galvanized zinc iron sheet plant in Guangdong Prefecture, both in China, will be scrapped. POSCO also suspended a mini-mill joint venture project in Indonesia, decided to sell its POSVEN joint-venture company in Venezuela, will sell or liquidate Changwon Special Steel Co. and suspend six real estate projects.

Xerox to increase stake in Indian J.V.
NEW DELHI - The U.S.-based Xerox Corporation is increasing its stake to 40 percent in its Indian joint-venture company Modi Xerox Ltd through a preferential offer. The current holding of the $18 billion Xerox Corporation in the Indian venture is 35.9 percent. Indian promoter B.K. Modi's Modicorp Private Ltd. is also increasing its stake to 35 percent from the current level of 29 percent.

Yamaha Corp. records first ever pre-tax loss
TOKYO - Yamaha Corp. (TSE:7951) expects to post a pretax loss of 15 billion yen ($132.36 million) in the current fiscal year through March, its first parent-only pretax loss since the company was listed in 1949, president Kazukiyo Ishimura said.

The loss is attributed to sales of thin-film magnetic heads for hard-disk drives halving to about 36 billion yen. The musical instrument maker marked pretax profit of 11.4 billion yen in fiscal 1997. The company will lower the forecast for overall sales from 410 billion yen to 390 billion yen and will restructure the company to regain a healthy financial standing.

Indonesia's petrochemical giant to suspend operations
JAKARTA - Indonesia's largest petrochemical company, PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Center (CAPC), plans to suspend operations for 50 days from March after reporting a loss of Rp1.4 trillion ($175 million) in 1998. Bisnis Indonesia, a daily, quoted company sources as saying the firm needed to repair some of its machines. The sources denied that the 1998 losses were the reason for the suspension.

G.M. to set up M&A headquarters in Korea
SEOUL - General Motors of the United States plans to speed up mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the Asia-Pacific region by setting up an M&A headquarters under its Asia-Pacific operations headquarters, G.M. Korea said Monday. The M&A operations will be headed by G.M. Korea president Alan Perriton.

In particular, G.M. will focus on forging strategic alliances with the companies in such key Asian countries as Korea, Japan, and China. The company is studying a plan to expand its selective and limited tie-ups with Daewoo Motor.

Daewoo sales projected to hit 1.55m units
SEOUL - Daewoo Group vehicles sales in both domestic and overseas markets this year are projected to hit 1.55 million units, including passenger cars and commercial vehicles produced by Daewoo Motor and Daewoo Heavy Industries (KSE:00200), generating revenue of 15 trillion won ($12.8 billion), the group said Monday.

DaimlerChrysler looks to lift Asian sales by 15%
TOKYO - DaimlerChrysler AG aims to boost its sales in Asia from the current under 10% of total sales to 20-25% within 10 years, and is willing to consider acquisitions or equity participation to achieve the goal, Juergen Schrempp, co-chairman of the world's third largest automaker, says. To that end, the German/American automaker is continuing negotiations with Nissan Motor Co. (TSE:7201) on a possible capital tie-up.

Foreign stake in Korean bank rises above 50%
SEOUL - Housing and Commercial Bank (HCB) (KSE:27460) became the first non-joint-venture Korean bank to have more than half of its stake owned by foreigners purely through stock investment, banking sources said Monday. Foreign investors owned 46.16 million HCB shares, or 51.73 percent of the bank's 89.23 million shares as of last Friday.

Shokusan Jutaku gets $573m loan write-off
TOKYO - As part of a restructuring plan, its principal banks have agreed to waive 65 billion yen ($573.6 million) in loans to Shokusan Jutaku Sogo Co. (TSE:1920), while three companies will purchase a total 3.3 billion yen worth of new shares, the midsize house builder has announced. The Tokyo-based firm will also close down regional sales offices and withdraw completely from the real-estate development business. It hopes to return to the break-even point in fiscal 1999.

Hanoi approves larger Hyundai shipyard investment
HANOI - The Vietnamese Government has approved Hyundai Corporation's application to raise investment in its giant shipyard project in central Khanh Hoa Province from an initial $95 million to $139 million, says a source from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI). The Hyundai-Venation shipyard, a joint venture between the Korean chaebol and Vietnam's Vinaship, is scheduled to be inaugurated this April.

(Asia Pulse)


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