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Business in Asia Today



Volkswagen intent on aquiring Daewoo Motor
SEOUL - Volkswagen has expressed its intention to acquire Daewoo Motor, according to a Korean creditor source. "Volkswgen, the world's No 6 car maker, has expressed an intent to buy Daewoo through an investment consulting company," the source said. "Almost all of the world's leading auto companies are thus going to take part in the acquisition bid." General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Fiat have already showed interest in Daewoo. Among domestic entities, Hyundai Motor and the Korea Federation of Small Business have declared they are interested.

Hyundai Securities, Haansoft in cyber stock-trade tie-up
SEOUL - Hyundai Securities (KSE: 03450) will forge a strategic alliance with Haansoft in a bid to expand its presence in cyber stock trading, a Hyundai source says. Hyundai and Haansoft will set up about 500 Web stations to provide diverse services such as home trading and market and securities information.

Korea Telecom, Microsoft in e-business tie-up
SEOUL - Korea Telecom and Microsoft agreed Friday to form an alliance in e-business from development to marketing. The two signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic alliance in key Internet operations, giving Korea Telecom access to Microsoft's content service and networking technology. The US software giant, in return, will gain greater access to the Internet market here through its partnership with the nation's largest communications company.

Samsung Corp promotes Internet steel portal
SEOUL - Korea's Samsung Corp (KSE: 00830) has set up an Internet steel portal site (www.tradesteel.com) for e-commerce and expects about 50 foreign and domestic companies to join, business sources said Friday. A new company to operate the site will be established in Silicon Valley, California, in April and financial institutions in advanced countries are expected to take part as shareholders, Samsung said. The site will serve as an e-commerce link for steel suppliers and users and will handle all procedures ranging from selling and buying orders to contracts, settlement of payment, loading, insurance, transport and customs clearance.

Korea's Shinhan Bank to work with Macquarie
SEOUL - South Korea's Shinhan Bank said Friday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding for strategic business cooperation in investment banking with Macquarie Bank of Australia. The two sides will cooperate in project financing and financial consulting while activating investment banking in Korea. Macquarie, with 40 sales bases around the world, is a leading bank in specialist fields like project finance and derivatives.

S Korean govt to sell bank stake via holding cos
SEOUL - The government is considering selling its stake in banks through a holding company to ease the burden on the stock market and confusion in the financial sector, Finance and Economy Minister Lee Hun-jai said Friday. "We plan to redeem our public fund investment as early as possible," he said at a press conference, hinting that the government would not wait until bank shares roise to a certain level.

ATI bid for S Korea's Anam package ops rejected
SEOUL - Creditors of Korea's Anam Semiconductor decided Friday to reject the offer by ATI Technologies of the United States to take over the company's package operations for $800 million. ATI's offer showed too great a gap with the due diligence by Arthur D Little that found Anam's package business being worth $1.15 billion, a spokesman for the creditors said.

S Korea's KEPCO completes reorganization plan
SEOUL - The Korea Electric Power Corp, or KEPCO (KSE: 15760), says its shareholders have approved a reorganization plan dividing its power generation sector into six units and an electricity marketing office. The plan will be put into force as soon as the power industry reorganization bill gets parliamentary approval as it closely follows the power sector plan firmed up last September.

AGC, Internet Research to form systems management venture
TOKYO - Asia Global Crossing Ltd said Thursday it would form a joint venture with Internet Research Institute Ltd (TSE: 4741) to manage computer systems for e-commerce services and the application service provider business for corporate clients in Japan. The joint venture will use a high-capacity, global optical-fiber network owned by US communications carrier Global Crossing Ltd, which has a stake in California-based AGC, along with Microsoft Corp and Softbank Corp. The Tokyo-based venture will be capitalized at 6 billion yen ($56.78 million). AGC will provide 89 percent, with the remainder put up by Internet Research.

China to set up high-tech securities boards on 2 exchanges
BEIJING - China will set up boards for high-tech securities with independent stock indices on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges this year in an effort to support the development of high-tech enterprises. The quota system for initial public offerings (IPO) will be abandoned and replaced by a system under which the lead underwriters will take more responsibility, said chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission Zhou Zhengqing, adding that priority would be given to SOEs. The government is also considering exit mechanisms for listed firms that have been losing money for three consecutive years.

Malaysian satellite broadcaster targets 1m subscribers
KUALA LUMPUR - Astro, Malaysian provider of Direct-to-U satellite broadcasting and interactive services, has targeted a total of 1 million new subscribers over next two years. Three years after its launch, Astro's current subscriber-base has surpassed the 300,000 mark and it expects to hit 500,000 by the middle of this year, said C Y Chin, executive director of Measat Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd, the operator of Astro. He said although the one million figure was a high forecast, he believed it could be achieved as market for pay-TV service was "catching up".

Virtual Group launches new investor Net service
KUALA LUMPUR - The Virtual Group of Companies has launched the Investors Xchange, an online service that provides retail trading of equities and futures live over the Internet. Executive chairman Nik Mohamed Din, said Investors Xchange was a service that provided easy, cheap trading for the masses and had set a target of 50,000 subscribers this year.

Taiwanese corp to build 4 plants in Vietnam
HANOI - The Uni-President Vietnam Company, a subsidiary of Taiwan's President Enterprises, plans to build four factories worth a total of $151.6 million in Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces. Construction of the first factory in Binh Duong Province will begin next month with production of animal feed is scheduled to start in July. The factory will use primarily domestic raw materials except when local materials are in short supply. A plant producing instant food will be built in the same zone with about 30 percent its output going to markets overseas. The two other projects will be built in the Phu My industrial part in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. One will produce edible oil and the other, wheat flour.

Philippine power co signs MoU for US tech exchange
DAVAO CITY - A memorandum of agreement beween Aboitiz-owned Davao Light (DLPC) and Power Company and the American Electric Power (AEP) Resources marks the launch of a two-year program in which DLPC and AEP exchange technical knowhow and expertise by sending respective employees to the US and Davao City, Philippines. The partnership involves six Philippines electric utilities and one regulatory agency.

Music.com secures equity investment from Citicorp Capital Asia
MANILA - Music.com, a full service music website, has secured an equity investment from Citicorp Capital Asia Limited, a unit of Citigroup, to fund its expansion plans. President and CEO of Music.com Philippe Bellosguardo announced Citigroup had spearheaded a direct equity investment in Music.com along with other private funds, for a total of $6 million financing.

Philippine Petron's 1999 income down by 43%
MANILA - Oil refiner Petron Corp reported a 1999 consolidated net income of 2.1 billion pesos ($51.78 million). This is 43 percent lower than last year's 3.7 billion pesos income. The steep decline reflects the company's inability to recover crude costs increases in the second half of 1999.

Indonesia container terminal opens new link to Asia
JAKARTA - Jakarta International Container Terminal announced on Thursday it had opened a new direct link to the Philippines, Hong Kong and South Korea to accommodate the increasing volume of cargo in Asia. Heung-A shipping company will provide vessels to serve the weekly cargo service linking Manila and Jakarta to Surabaya, Hong Kong and Pusan, South Korea.

Bank Central Asia to issue IPO in March
JAKARTA - Bank Central Asia (BCA) will issue 3.24 billion shares in an initial public offering (IPO) on March 14, the Surabaya Stock Exchange said. The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency said recently it expected to raise Rp3 trillion ($428.5 million) from BCA's IPO.

Australia's Kingstream Steel closes deal with German cos
PERTH - Struggling Australian steel junior, Kingstream Steel Ltd, believes it has sewn up the deal which will finally lead to the construction of its A$1.6 billion (US$1.04 billion) Mid-West Iron and Steel project. Kingstream has engaged SMS Demag AG and Ferrostaal AG to undertake the engineering supply and construction of the 2.6 million tonne per annum steel slab plant in Western Australia.

Asia-Pacific airfares set to rise in 2000: Amex
SYDNEY - Asia Pacific airfares are set to increase this year by about 4.5 percent after rises during the last quarter of 1999, according to the American Express Airfare Index. Eric Meierhans, director, American Express Consulting Services Group, said, "What we can expect . . . is a push for higher airfares by the Asia Pacific airlines. Stronger demand has largely ended the price discounting of 1998-99. In addition, higher costs for the airlines, particularly for fuel, will inevitably be passed on to the consumer."

Australia's Energy Resources announces 257% net profit rise
SYDNEY - Energy Resources of Australia Ltd expects to achieve profit growth in the full year without the assistance of abnormal gains. The uranium miner announced a 257 percent lift in net profit of A$19.2 million (US$12.52 million) for the six months to December 31, 1999. The result was boosted by an abnormal gain of A$12.3 million from tax changes.

Davnet in talks to buy Hong Kong's NWT
MELBOURNE - Telco Davnet Ltd says it is in exclusive talks to buy New World Telephone Ltd (NWT), a subsidiary of the New World group of companies. The agreement will allow Davnet's Hong Kong subsidiary, Davnet Digitel Hong Kong Ltd, to negotiate exclusively to purchase the business, full carrier fixed telecommunications network system license and other assets of NWT in Hong Kong and China.

India's Exim Bank seeks dilution of govt equity
CALCUTTA - The Exim Bank of India has sought dilution of government equity below the level of 50 percent so that it can have more freedom in its operations, according to its chairman YB Desai. The paid-up equity capital of Rs5 billion ($114.73 million) of Exim Bank is wholly funded by the Indian government. Desai said that Exim Bank, which had set a benchmark in the banking industry in terms of capital adequacy requirement and productivity per employee, was constrained by the charter drawn up by the government for its functioning.

India's Mantra Online signs MoU with Venture Infotek
NEW DELHI -India's Mantra Online, an Internet service provider, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Venture Infotek Group to secure online payment for goods and services bought on the former's website. With this secure online credit card payment solution, a user on Mantra Online has the facility of having any Visa or MasterCard transaction accepted on the Internet itself, a company release said here.

US's iAsiaWorks acquires Indian-owned web hosting firm
NEW DELHI - US Internet solutions company iAsiaWorks has acquired Web Professionals, a Silicon Valley-based web hosting firm founded by an Indian entrepreneur, for an undisclosed combination of cash and equity. Sanjay Dani, founder and CEO of Web Professionals will join iAsiaWorks as vice-president for hosting strategy and services following the acquisition, iAsiaWorks said.

(Asia Pulse)

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