MULTINATIONALS
Sony eyes ¥500bn profit
Sony Corp forecast operating profit will reach ¥500 billion (US$4.2 billion) in the year starting April 2017, the Tokyo-based company said yesterday. That compares with its forecast for ¥20 billion in operating profit this year. Sony is also targeting a boost in its return-on-equity to above 10 percent. Sony shares closed at ¥3,174.5 before the announcement. The stock has surged 28 percent this year, compared with a 5.3 percent rise in the benchmark TOPIX. Sony this month forecast an annual operating profit of ¥20 billion, compared with an earlier projection for a ¥40 billion loss.
HONG KONG
Shanghai short sales coming
Foreign investors will be able to bet on declines in Shanghai equities through the exchange link with Hong Kong starting on March 2. Short sales will be limited to 1 percent or less of daily turnover for a specific stock, or a maximum 5 percent for the total trading over a 10-day period, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEx) said yesterday. Traders can only input short-selling orders in multiples of 100 shares, while the price can’t be lower than the most recent execution level for a security, HKEx said.
SHIPPING
Neptune sells logistics unit
Singapore container shipping firm Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) said on Tuesday it is selling its logistics business to Japanese freight company Kintetsu World Express Inc for US$1.2 billion. NOL said in a filing with the Singapore Exchange its decision to sell APL Logistics would allow it to focus on its core liner shipping business. Proceeds from the sale will be used to strengthen the company’s financial position, including repaying debts, said NOL, Southeast Asia’s biggest container line. NOL, which is 65 percent owned by Singapore state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings Ltd, said the transaction would be completed by the middle of this year.
REAL ESTATE
Morgan Stanley seeks exit
Morgan Stanley’s property unit appointed advisers as it seeks to exit its A$9 billion (US$7 billion) real estate business in Australia. Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing said in a statement it plans to sell its holding in Investa Property Group, Australia’s third-biggest owner of city center offices, and that UBS AG and Morgan Stanley Australia would “explore strategic alternatives.” Morgan Stanley said successful bidders could engage the office management unit to run any of the properties they acquire. Potential overseas buyers include LaSalle Investment Management, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Blackstone Group, the Australian newspaper has reported.
TRAVEL
Expedia to raise AAE stake
US online travel operator Expedia Inc announced on Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with AirAsia Berhad to purchase an additional 25 percent equity interest of a Singapore-based joint venture between the two companies. This US$86.3 million investment will increase Expedia’s total ownership in AAE Travel Pte Ltd to 75 percent, the company said in a statement. The joint venture was formed in 2011. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year, at which point Expedia expects to include the joint venture financial results in its consolidated financial statements. The company said its consolidated sales this year may show a strong growth from US$5.76 billion last year.
JAPAN
Household spending tumbles
Japanese household spending last year declined at its fastest pace in eight years, official data showed on Tuesday, underscoring the impact of the country’s first sales tax hike in nearly two decades. The world’s No. 3 economy posted zero growth in economy over the full year, partly due to weak private spending which accounts for about 60 percent of GDP. Last year, the average household spent ¥251,481 (US$2,115) each month, down 3.2 percent from the previous year and marking the first year-over-year decline since Japan’s quake-tsunami accident in 2011.
UNITED KINGDOM
Inflation hits new low
British officials say the inflation rate fell last month to an annual 0.3 percent — the lowest on record — amid falling energy prices and supermarket price wars. The Office of National Statistics said on Tuesday the rate is down from December’s rate of 0.5 percent. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has predicted that inflation may turn negative in the coming months, but said he believed low inflation to be a short-term phenomenon that would boost spending among consumers. Inflation is well below the central bank’s 2 percent target rate, but Carney said last week the bank will “look through” what it sees as temporary drops.
GERMANY
Investor confidence rises
A survey shows that investor confidence in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has risen to its highest level in a year though the increase was a little short of expectations amid concerns over Ukraine and Greece. The ZEW institute said on Tuesday its monthly confidence index, which measures investors’ economic outlook for the next six months, rose to 53 points for this month from 48.4 last month — the fourth consecutive increase. Economists had predicted a rise to 55 points. ZEW president Clemens Fuest said the European Central Bank’s decision to start buying government bonds with newly printed money improved sentiment along with robust fourth-quarter German economic growth.
TELECOMS
Hutchison steps up talks
Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (和記黃埔) has intensified negotiations with VimpelCom Ltd to combine their wireless assets in Italy, according to two people familiar with the matter. The companies have made progress in resolving disagreements over ownership structure, with talks focusing on Hutchison’s 3 Italia unit buying VimpelCom’s Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA, one of the people said. The combined businesses, with more than 30 million mobile subscribers and about 6.7 billion euros (US$7.6 billion) in 2013 revenue, would challenge market leader Telecom Italia SpA. In the UK, Hutchison started exclusive talks last month to acquire Telefonica SA’s O2 unit for as much as £10.25 billion (US$15.8 billion).
RETAIL
Tesco names chairman
Troubled British supermarket giant Tesco on Tuesday named John Allan as chairman, ending a four-month search after Richard Broadbent resigned amid an accounting scandal. Allan, 66, will join the board and be appointed chairman on March 1, when Broadbent will step down from the board, Tesco said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. Allan is currently on the boards of electrical retailer Dixons Carphone and postal operator Royal Mail, but is to step down from those positions when he takes up his new role at Tesco.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained