Fri, Jan 31, 2014 page6

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  AUTOMAKERS

  Toyota in seat fabric talks

  Toyota Motor Corp says it is in talks with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) about a possible recall in the US and Canada covering several car models, including the popular Camry, for a potential problem with its seat fabric. The Japanese automaker has already halted sales of the problem vehicles, which are only those equipped with seat heaters, because the fabric may not clear flammability standards. Company spokesman Naoki Sumino says affected models are the Camry, Camry hybrid, Avalon sedan, Avalon hybrid, Corolla subcompact, Sienna minivan, Tundra and Tacoma trucks sold since August 2012, when the fabric supplier was changed. He did not immediately know how many vehicles were affected. He says it remains unclear whether the NHTSA would decide on a recall.

  BANKING

  ICBC to control Standard unit

  Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC, 中國工商銀行), the world’s most profitable lender, agreed to buy control of Standard Bank Group Ltd’s markets unit to expand in trading spanning commodities and interest rates to currencies. Standard Bank, based in Johannesburg, sold 60 percent of the London-based business to ICBC for about US$765 million and granted the Chinese bank a five-year option to acquire an additional 20 percent stake in the unit, according to a statement on Wednesday. The option becomes available two years after the deal is completed and if ICBC takes up the right, Standard Bank can require the lender to buy the remaining stake.

  SOFTWARE

  Dassault to bid for Accelrys

  French industrial software company Dassault Systemes said yesterday it intends to bid about US$750 million for US company Accelrys, which specialises in chemicals and biotechnology. Dassault Sytemes said its offer would be based on US$12.50 per share, representing a premium of 29 percent on the closing price of Accelrys shares on the US NASDAQ market late on Wednesday. Accelrys, based in San Diego, California, has nearly 2,000 customers including big pharmaceutical and biotechnology groups such as Sanofi, DuPont, Unilever and L’Oreal.

  STEELMAKERS

  Nippon Sumitomo recovers

  Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp said yesterday it swung to a profit for the nine months to December on the back of strong demand in line with the nation’s economic recovery. The world’s second-biggest steelmaker said net profit was ￥192.8 billion (US$1.9 billion) for the period, on sales of ￥4 trillion. The steelmaker, created through the merger of Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal, reported a ￥151.9 billion net loss on sales of ￥3.1 trillion for the same period last year when the two firms were in the middle of the merger transition.

  AVIATION

  Forecast drag down Boeing

  Boeing Co, the world’s largest planemaker, dropped the most in two years after it forecast profit for this year that fell short of analysts’ estimates amid a slowing pace of jet orders. Earnings excluding some pension expenses will be US$7 to US$7.20 a share for this year, the company said on Wednesday. That compares with US$7.07 last year and an average estimate of US$7.46 in a Bloomberg survey of 23 analysts. The company’s fourth-quarter profit excluding some pension expenses was US$1.84 billion, unchanged from a year earlier due to a one-time non-cash charge. Earnings per share rose 29 percent to US$1.88 a share, Boeing said.

  NEW ZEALAND

  OCR kept at record low

  New Zealand’s central bank yesterday left the official cash rate (OCR) unchanged at a record low of 2.5 percent, but warned it will rise soon as the economy gains momentum. The rate has been on hold since March 2011, when it was lowered to cushion the impact of a devastating earthquake in Christchurch, but the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said it was now ready to return to “more normal levels.” Central bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said New Zealand’s GDP grew by 3.5 percent in the year to September and growth is expected to continue around this rate over the coming year. He said that prices were set to rise as the economy improved, threatening the bank’s 1 to 3 percent inflation target.

  PHILIPPINES

  Economy grew 7.2% in 2013

  Philippine officials say the country’s economy expanded 7.2 percent last year despite the havoc wrought by a super typhoon and an earthquake in the last three months of the year. Even then, officials said the Philippines was the second-best performing economy in Asia after China in the fourth quarter. Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said yesterday the Philippines posted 6.5 percent growth in GDP in the fourth quarter. He says its performance could have been better if not for the major disasters and a nearly month-long gunbattle between government troops and Muslim rebels that shut down a major southern city.

  TAXATION

  Spain’s cash market blooms

  Untaxed transactions in Spain have surged to equal nearly a quarter of the country’s output as unemployed workers scrape a living in the black economy, experts said on Wednesday. The cash economy has flourished since 2008, when the collapse of a building boom hurled Spain into a double recession, a report by Treasury experts and academics said. Cash transactions carried out behind the taxman’s back in 2012 hit nearly 253 billion euros (US$346 billion), or 24.6 percent of GDP, according to the report released by GESTHA, a tax inspectors’ union.

  COFFEE SHOPS

  Starbucks’ Schultz moves on

  Starbucks Corp chief executive officer Howard Schultz is handing over day-to-day operations to the company’s chief financial officer. Troy Alstead, 50, will be promoted to chief operating officer effective Monday, Seattle-based Starbucks said in a statement. Schultz will focus more on next-generation retailing, digital and mobile payments, the company’s loyalty program and electronic commerce. Scott Maw, 46, who serves as senior vice president of corporate finance, will succeed Alstead as CFO, Starbucks said.

  PETROLEUM

  Triple whammy fetters Shell

  Shell’s earnings dropped by 74 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year ago, on a mix of higher exploration costs, lower production and worse refining margins. The company, which warned on Jan. 17 that weaker figures were coming, also had more one-time gains last year. Net profit for the quarter was US$1.78 billion, versus US$6.73 billion a year earlier. The earnings report, the first featuring new chief executive Ben van Beurden, said production was down 5 percent to 3.25 million barrels per day. Shell said 2 percentage points were due to wells shut in Nigeria for security reasons, and the rest due to other maintenance and “asset replacement activities” — old fields fading faster than new projects came online.
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