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World Business Quick Take

■ Semiconductors
NEC releases sales target
NEC Electronics Corp, Japan's third-biggest chipmaker, targets sales of as much as ?30 billion (US$271 million) in fiscal 2007 for a chip that allows mobile phone users to receive digital broadcasts and download images faster. "We're trying to meet the demands of a mobile phone market that is evolving to add more functions," said Hidetoshi Kosaka, a vice president at NEC Electronics, at a press conference in Tokyo. NEC Electronics will join Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc and Japan's Renesas Technology Corp in the market for application processors. "Our first target is countries like Japan and South Korea, where the consumers use application-rich functions," Kosaka said. The new chip may also be used in consumer electronics such as car navigation systems, he added.

■ Communications
Softbank wants legal action
Softbank Corp president Masayoshi Son said his company may take legal action to stop the government from redistributing mobile-phone frequencies to Japan's two largest carriers so that Softbank can offer its own service. The company plans to offer mobile-phone services using the 800 megahertz frequency. The government plan would restrict that spectrum to NTT DoCoMo Inc and KDDI Corp, which already provide service at that frequency. "We are now discussing the matter with lawyers," Son told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo. "Those frequencies belong to the citizens of Japan." Softbank will start offering a fixed-line phone service in December.

■ Financial services
Banks seek Asian clients
European banks are beefing up their operations to attract and service new clients from previously untapped markets such as Thailand, Indochina and North Asia, a check of headhunters showed yesterday. Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are among those most actively recruiting senior people, the Straits Times found. Also getting into the act are relative newcomers such as Greek-owned EFG Bank Group, which set up shop in Singapore last year. The bright picture for private bankers has emerged only in the last 12 months. The preceding five years were relatively bleak as banks suffered heavy losses from loans made to business owners in the region who went bankrupt during the Asian financial crisis. Headhunters in Singapore said a senior private banker now commands an annual salary of S$300,000 (US$175,000) and an equivalent bonus.

■ Communications
Telestra details buy-back
Australia's dominant telecommunications firm, Telstra, unveiled yesterday details of a A$750 million (US$532 million) off-market share buy-back as part of a three-year, A$4.5 billion capital management program. Telstra Corp Ltd announced in June that it planned to return A$1.5 billion to shareholders each year for the next three years through a combination of special dividends and share buy-backs. It flagged the plan for the A$750 million buy-back when the corporation reported its net profit of A$4.118 billion on Aug. 12. The buy-back, combined with plans for a A$0.06 per share special dividend to be paid with the 2004/05 interim dividend, is part of the capital management program Telstra chief financial officer John Stanhope yesterday said shareholders who participate in the buy-back will get a return of capital and a fully franked dividend.

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