Sun, Oct 26, 2003 page11

• World Business Quick Take

  • STAFF WRITER WITH AGENCIES
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  ■ Real Estate
  Asiaworld to close its doors

  The Asiaworld Department Store (大亞百貨) in front of Taipei Main Station will be closed upon completion of its 20-day clear-out sales kicked off yesterday, Chinese-language media reported yesterday. Asiaworld Group (亞世集團), owner of Asiaworld Department Store, started auctioning off parts of its property -- the second to the sixth floors and the underground parking lot -- starting in 2001, due to financial difficulties. In mid October, the Sunlife Group (國寶集團), a group that operates funeral homes and an insurance business, won the bid for over 5,000 pings of space at a price of NT$1.01 billion. The shutdown of the department store will not affect the operation of Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店) or the fitness center Alexander Group (亞力山大健康休閒俱樂部), both of which operate stores in the building, local media said. Sunlife Group said it plans to turn the building into a "leisure-oriented center" after it won the bid. The group said it would issue a blueprint of the project by the end of the year.

  ■ Crime

  Fraud in HK up 38 percent

  Hong Kong reported a 38 percent increase in the amount of money lost in business fraud cases in the first nine months of the year, police commissioner Tsang Yam-pui said yesterday. Speaking at an anti-fraud symposium, Tsang said losses rose from HK$590 million (US$75 million) last year to HK$941 million this year. Tsang urged accountants, lawyers and professionals to take the lead in tackling the problem by reporting criminal activities they came across. While the number of cases and monetary losses represented a relatively small percentage of overall business activity in the city, the sums involved were still large and the cases could have a serious impact on investor confidence, he said.

  ■ Automobiles

  Nissan still restructuring

  Japan's number-two carmaker Nissan plans to consolidate its 170 domestic sales companies to 100 by 2005 as part of its drive for structure reforms, a press report said yesterday. The sales firms are expected to incur a combined net loss of some ?20 billion (US$180 million) in the business year to March next year but the restructuring step will cut their expenses by 20 percent to 30 percent, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The companies are expected to return to profitability by 2005, the leading business daily said. No official at the Nissan Motor Co Ltd head office was immediately available to confirm the report. Nissan generated a record operating profit in the six months to September but weak profits at many of its domestic sales companies have become a burden, the report said.

  ■ Trade

  China, N Korea trade grows

  China's trade with North Korea rose in the first nine months of the year, as it bought larger quantities of minerals and metals from the desperately poor country, Chinese state media said yesterday. In the period from January to September, China's imports from North Korea via the border station of Dandong increased 12.3 percent to US$112.2 million, the Xinhua news agency reported. Imports were boosted by larger amounts of minerals and base metals, the agency said. Meanwhile, Chinese exports to the Stalinist country, mainly crude oil, chemical goods and farm products, rose 10.6 percent to US$232.3 million, Xinhua said. The figures contradict the impression that packed lorries enter North Korea from China, only to return empty from the impoverished country.
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