■ German bondsTen-year bunds plummet
European 10-year bunds logged their worst week in 15 months lower on speculation US-led troops will topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, damping demand for the perceived safety of debt. The German 4 1/2 percent January 2013 bund fell 1.96, or 19.6 euros per 1,000-euro (US$1,052) face amount, to 101.80. Its yield rose 25 basis points to 4.27 percent. The yield on the 4 1/4 percent February 2008 note added 25 basis points to 3.5 percent. It climbed 51 basis points in the past two weeks, the biggest gain since at least 1990. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. "Investors are betting the war will be over very quickly," said Alberto Brondolo, a fixed-income analyst at Lehman Brothers Inc.
■ Fuji Xerox
Regional HQ goes to China
Fuji Xerox Co, the Japanese printer and photocopier giant, will move its Asia-Pacific headquarters to China from Singapore next month as part of a ¥36 billion (US$300 million) investment in China, a newspaper reported yesterday. The company hopes the plan will help double its copier sales in China to ¥60 billion (US$500 million) by fiscal 2005, the business newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun said, citing unnamed company sources. An increasing number of Japanese companies are seeking to expand business in China to take advantage of lower costs and growing markets there.
■ Bankruptcies
Malaysians go belly up
A total of 12,268 Malaysian companies and individuals went bankrupt last year -- the highest yearly figure since 1985 and up 5 percent from 11,685 cases in 2001, a report said. The Edge newspaper Sunday said last year's bankruptcies (personal and corporate) also grew by more than 50 percent since 1998, when the economy underwent its worst recession since the country's independence in 1957. "Bankruptcy numbers are lagging indicators for the economy, so with the slow economic pick-up coming out of 2001 we may see bankruptcies continue to rise," an economist said. Wong Chee-seng, senior economist at DBS Bank said: "Assuming that the economy (this year) grows by the projected four to five percent, the bankruptcy numbers will stabilize -- but if there is sub-par growth at 2 percent to 3 percent, the problem of rising bankruptcies will come back."
■ Hawaiian Air
Bankruptcy filing submitted
Hawaiian Airlines filed for bankruptcy Saturday after failing to cut the cost of its plane leases, but it vowed to stay in the air and restructure. The airline -- the 12th largest in the US -- said it had been severely shaken by the September 2001 attacks but it still expected to recover. "Clearly we would have preferred to complete our restructuring outside of the bankruptcy court, particularly in light of our significant progress to date," chairman and chief executive John Adams said in a statement. "A major element of our strategic plan and the key to the future financial health of the company is to mark our aircraft lease rates to market, but without the support of certain of our aircraft lessors, we felt obliged to protect the assets of the company, including the continued use of our aircraft while the restructuring is finalized," Adams said. The airline's parent, Hawaiian Holdings, was not included in the filing.
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