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  March 15, 2000 atimes.com  

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Sanwa, Tokai, Asahi to unify banking
TOKYO - Sanwa Bank (TSE: 8320), Tokai Bank (TSE: 8321) and Asahi Bank (TSE: 8322) formally decided to integrate operations at separate extraordinary board of directors meetings held Tuesday morning, bank sources said. The three banks will restructure their operations by April 2002, with investment banking, international and other operations being consolidated in a new bank to be established under the holding company. Their individual retail banking networks will likely be maintained for some time, however.

Isuzu launches joint bus project in Guangzhou
Isuzu Motor Co Ltd of Japan has started a bus production venture in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province, in cooperation with two China-based companies. The Guangzhou Isuzu Bus Co Ltd said it was jointly financed by the Guangzhou Automobile Group Company, the Isuzu Motor Co Ltd of Japan and the Isuzu China Investment Company, with the Guangzhou Automobile Group Company taking a 51 percent stake, the Isuzu Motor Co Ltd taking 25 percent and the Isuzu China Investment Company holding the remaining 24 percent. The joint venture will require total investment of $30 million and is expected to produce 1,200 buses each year.

Toyota Tsusho buys Itochu Group's steel pipe maker
NAGOYA - The Toyota Tsusho Corp (TSE: 8015) had bought 99.75 percent of the outstanding shares of Aichi Kokan Kogyo KK, a steel pipe manufacturing affiliate of Itochu Corp (TSE: 8001), the Toyota group trading firm said. The price was not disclosed. Toyota Tsusho hopes the purchase will boost business with autoparts manufacturers. Later this month it will dispatch a full-time and a part-time director to the Aichi Prefecture steel firm.

Toyota, others work on online market for patents
TOKYO - Ten Japanese companies are participating in an online intellectual property and patent shopping mall, officials at yet2.com, a US start-up firm operating the market, announced Monday. The 10 firms include Toyota Motor Corp (TSE: 7203) and Toshiba Corp (TSE: 6502). The other eight Japanese companies, which will cooperate in the market by providing technical data and through other means, are Kao Corp (TSE: 4452), Mitsubishi Chemical Corp (TSE: 4010), Asahi Glass Co (TSE: 5201), Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd (TSE: 5802), Denso Corp (TSE: 6902), Toray Industries Inc (TSE: 3402), Fuji Photo Film Co (TSE: 4901) and Mitsui Chemicals Inc (TSE: 4183).

Japan's Toyo to expand Mitsui Chemicals' Singapore plant
TOKYO - Toyo Engineering Corp (TSE: 6330) has received an order from Mitsui Chemicals Inc (TSE: 4183) to expand Mitsui's Singapore plant, which produces raw materials for resins. Toyo will design, procure parts for, construct and test-run a new plant that will produce 70,000 tons of bisphenol A. The new plant, to be located on the site of Mitsui Chemicals' existing plant in Singapore, will double the facility's total production capacity to 140,000 tons a year.

Japan's Arabia Oil finds Gulf of Mexico gas reserves
TOKYO - A subsidiary of Arabian Oil Co (TSE:1603) has discovered new reserves in the natural gas field in Gulf of Mexico waters which are under the jurisdiction of the US, Arabian Oil officials announced Monday. AOC Energy Development Co discovered some 30 billion cubic feet of gas, equivalent to about 5 million barrels of crude oil.

Softbank to invest $400m in Korean firms
SEOUL - Softbank will increase its investment in South Korean venture firms to $400 million from the original $100 million. In December, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son promised in Seoul to invest $100 million in the nation through Softbank Korea (SBK) over the next three years. "The funds will begin to come this month, but the amount is inadequate compared to the fast growing local Internet industry. Thus we will raise (an additional) $300 million in funds for the latter half of this year," SBK President Sunny Lee said on Tuesday.

Seoul Guarantee Insurance co set for funds boost
SEOUL - The Seoul Guarantee Insurance Co will receive an injection of 700 billion won ($625 million) in public funds Wednesday. The funds will be made available in the form of callable stocks from the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp to pay principal and interest of Daewoo bonds held by financial institutions and corporate investors. The payment is due from next week. Seoul Guarantee will buy back the callable stocks after five years and cancel them.

Hyundai to set up 400 venture firms over 3 years
SEOUL - Hyundai Corp said Tuesday that it would start up 400 venture companies with 300 billion won ($268 million) over the next three years in order to form a digital network. It declared "n-management" connecting its offline operations in shipping, steel and chemicals with an online network to lessen costs and pioneer new markets. The company would add venture capital, sports marketing, entertainment and resource development to its operations.

Korea's Daum, Serome deny merger rumors
SEOUL - Daum Communication (Kosdaq: 35720) and Serome Technology (35610) on Tuesday dismissed the lingering rumor of a possible merger between them. Market watchers, however, are not ruling out a merger between the two leading Internet players. If realized, the union will create a super Internet entity with a market capitalization exceeding 6 trillion won ($5.35 billion).

China's first TFT-LCD production line starts up
CHANGCHUN - China's first color thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) production line has been put into operation in Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province. The production line is producing mainly 10.4-inch and 16.1-inch products. It is expected to generate more than 1.4 billion yuan ($169.28 million) in sales and 200 million yuan in profit annually.

Malaysia's UBG posts $15m profit in 1999
KUALA LUMPUR - Utama Banking Group Bhd (UBG) made a turnaround in the financial year ended December 31, 1999 when it posted a group pre-tax profit and zakat amounting to RM56.7 million ($14.9 million) as against RM489.3 million loss in the previous financial year. In a statement released Monday, the banking group said its net income had also improved to RM176.3 million as against a loss of RM372.6 million, previously.

Titan Petrochemicals boosts capacity by 150%
JOHOR BAHARU - Titan Petrochemicals & Polymers Bhd, the operator of Malaysia's first fully integrated petrochemical plant, has increased its production capacity by 150 percent with the completion of a RM3.2 billion ($843 million) Phase II expansion program. Titan now produces an additional combined capacity of over 1,200,000 metric tonnes annually of its various product types such as ethylene, propylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, benzene and toluene.

Tancho Indonesia starts work on new factory
JAKARTA - PT Tancho Indonesia, a publicly-listed cosmetics company, said it was building a new factory in the MM2100 industrial estate in West Java. The factory, estimated to cost Rp50 billion ($7 million) would be completed in December and commercial operations would start early next year, company management said. The new factory would strengthen PT Tancho Indonesia's function as a production base for cosmetic products of the Mandom Group for exports to other Southeast Asian countries and the Middle East. PT Tancho is owned by Mandom of Japan. Construction of the factory began last week.

BNI placed under control of Bank Indonesia
JAKARTA - Indonesian state bank BNI (JSX: BBNI) has been back under Bank Indonesia's control since March 10 after having been under the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency's (Ibra) supervision for credit-transfer purposes. Ibra deputy chairman Arwin Rasyid said that BNI was placed under Ibra to facilitate the transfer of non-performing credits to the agency. "It was merely a technical matter and has no relation with BNI performance," he said.

Indonesia's Bank Mandiri not to be transferred to Ibra
JAKARTA - Bank Indonesia said state-run Bank Mandiri would not be transferred to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra) as its capital adequacy ratio (CAR), now 12.44 percent, is far above the minimum level of 4 percent. A press release from the central bank said that criteria to be met by a bank to be transferred to Ibra is to have a CAR of less than 4 percent and bank owner failed to make fresh cash injection within one month after notification raising its CAR to above 4 percent.

Indonesian agency to sell shares in First Pacific
JAKARTA - The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra) said it plans to sell its shares in First Pacific, a subsidiary of the Salim Group listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The government agency said it hopes to raise Rp1.5 trillion ($214 million) from the sale of its 9 percent stake in the Hong Kong-based company. Ibra's shares in First Pacific, which operates in distribution, real estate, banking and telecommunication businesses, would be sold in April, Arwin Easyid, an agency executive said.

Goodman Fielder denies mill closure report
SYDNEY - Goodman Fielder Ltd has denied that the company's four mills in New Zealand are to close. The company was to review the operations of its Australasian milling division, group managing director for Australia and New Zealand Doug McKay said Tuesday. He described as "sensational" a newspaper report in New Zealand that the company's four mills in that country would close, saying it was based on a company document relating to the setting up of a 10-person team from the manufacturing, finance and technical sections of the company.

Sales up 8.7% for Australia's Harvey Norman
SYDNEY - Retailing giant Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd reported that sales for January 2000 were up 8.7 percent on the previous period, while sales for February were up 21.9 percent. Sales for the eight months ending February 29, 2000, were up 19.8 percent to A$1.53 billion (US$939.11 million), the company said. Increased sales from new stores in New Zealand and Australia contributed to a 58.9 percent increase in first half profit.

US Astracon, Alcatel Australia in OEM agreement
DENVER - Astracon Inc, a provider of automated service activation and connection management software for broadband and Internet Protocol (IP) networks, has entered into an OEM agreement with telecommunications technology and solutions provider, Alcatel Australia. The agreement will enable integration of Astracon's software for real-time service activation and assured connectivity into Alcatel Australia's networking solutions. Together the companies cover the requirements needed to bring next generation services quickly and seamlessly to telephony and data communications customers.

Virgin, Optus to launch Australian mobile phone service
BRISBANE - Virgin airlines is set to establish its own brand of mobile phones under a deal with Australian telco carrier Optus, the Queensland parliament was told on Tuesday. Minister for State Development and Trade Jim Elder said the agreement was part of plans by Virgin to expand its operations and build on its business operations in Australia.

(Asia Pulse)


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