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Business in Asia Today

Bayer to invest $4.5bn in Asia by 2010
BEIJING - The German pharmaceutical and chemical majorBayer will invest more than DM8 billion ($4.5 billion) inAsia by the year 2010, according to plans revealed by Bayerboard memberDieter Becher. Of the investment, DM4.8billion ($1 billion) will go into building new productionfacilities and over DM2 billion into the development of newdrugs and crop protection agents at its research centers inJapan. In addition, DM1.2 billion (US$252 million) has beenearmarked to round out Bayer's portfolio in the region throughacquisition.

NEC completes China's biggest semiconductor plant
SHANGHAI - NEC Corp. (TSE:6701) has completed China'sbiggest semiconductor plant here and begun production of64-megabit DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chips. Theelectronics giant set up a joint venture with astate-affiliated corporation as part of a government-sponsoreddomestic chip-making project. Capitalized at $700 million,the production company is 71.4 percent owned by the Shanghaifirm, with the remaining stake owned by NEC and its Chineseholding company.

Pohang Iron & Steel to issue convertible preferred stock
SEOUL - Pohang Iron & Steel Co. (KSE:05940) will introducea convertible preferred stock that can be converted intocommon stock within three years of the issue, the companyannounced. The convertible preferred shares will be issuedwithin 25 percent of the total shares outstanding, and theminimum dividend is set at 8 percent, compared with the 9percent for existing preferred shares.

Indian telecoms giant scraps buyback plan
NEW DELHI - India's state-owned Mahanagar Telephone NigamLimited (MTNL), the basic telecoms service operator in Delhiand Mumbai, said it had scrapped its plans to buy back aboutthree million shares, including the government equity. Thedecision to drop the buyback was taken by the boardof the cash-rich telecoms giant in view of "the volatility inthe market." The corporation had earmarked Rs5.28 billion($125 million) for the purpose following the cabinet's decision to allow MTNL to buy back up to five percent of its shares as part of the government's move todisinvest its equity in state-owned companies.

Hitachi goes three up on mainframe rivals
TOKYO - Hitachi Ltd. (TSE:6501) has developed a mainframecomputer with the world's highest data-processing capability,and is marketing the machine in the U.S. through itssubsidiary. Hitachi boosted performance to more than threetimes that of machines made by rival makers such as IBM andFujitsu Ltd. (TSE:6702) by doubling the processing capabilityof its CPUs (central processing units) and expanding itssystem configuration.

Jakarta changes to non-discriminatory auto policy
JAKARTA - Indonesia's Industry and Trade Minister RahardiRamelan said the government would have a non-discriminatingauto policy, with no manufacturer receiving a specialtreatment. He said there would be no special regulations for anational car, as had been the case in the past, and all carmanufacturing companies would be allowed to produce their ownversions of a national car without any special treatment bythe government.

Japanese syndicate to provide $1.05bn yen loan to Korean utilities
TOKYO - The Export-Import Bank of Japan announced that itwill provide jointly with a syndicate of private-sector banksa combined $1.05 billion in untied yen loans to twostate-run South Korean utilities. Under the agreement, theEx-Im Bank will shoulder 70 percent of the loans to KoreaElectric Power Corp. and Korea Gas Corp. The syndicate, led byBank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (TSE:8315), will provide theremainder.

Mayne Nickless's interim profit flat
MELBOURNE - Australian health care and logistics groupMayne Nickless Ltd. suffered at the hands of lower margins overthe first half of 1998/99, reporting a flat interimpre-abnormals profit of A$60.2 million (U.S.$38.43 million).However, a A$411 million (U.S.$262.38 million) net profit on thedivestment of Mayne Nickless' 25 percent stake in telecom company Cable& Wireless Optus late last year pushed the company's bottomline to A$452.72 million (U.S.$289.02 million).

Brandrill enters South African joint venture
PERTH - Australia's mining services and specialistrock-breaking contractor Brandrill Ltd. announced that it hadjoined forces with a South African mining contractor in an A$26million (U.S.$16.60 million) platinum mining contract. Brandrillhas a 50 percent stake in the joint venture with TorrexContracting Pty. Ltd. and its first contract is with theJohannesburg-listed Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., the secondlargest platinum producer in the world.

(Asia Pulse)


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