Source: Bloomberg Toyota Motor Corp. raised its profit forecast 11 per cent as rebounding sales in the US help Japanese carmakers emerge from a year marred by natural disasters. Net income will be JPY200 billion (US$2.6 billion) in the 12 months ending March 31, versus the JPY180 billion projected in December, Asia’s largest carmaker said ...
Source: AFP Australia’s central bank left official interest rates steady at 4.25 per cent on Tuesday, saying global conditions had, on balance, improved and local growth and inflation were close to target. Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said interest rates for borrowers had “declined to be close to their medium-term average” after two ...
Source: AFP Indonesia’s gross domestic product grew by 6.5 per cent in 2011 on the back of strong household consumption and private investment, a government official said Monday. “Indonesia’s economy grew 6.5 per cent year-on-year compared to 2010,” Central Statistics Agency spokesman Suryamin said. The results, which are the latest in a string of positive ...
Source: Bloomberg Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd agreed to buy Orange Austria in a deal valued at EUR1.3 billion (US$1.7 billion), adding to more than US$31 billion of investments in overseas mobile-phone operations. Hutchison 3G Austria, the local unit of Hutchison, expects to complete the purchase of Orange Austria in ...
Source: Reuters Japan’s Panasonic Corp forecast a record annual net loss of US$10.2 billion on Friday, joining beleaguered rivals Sony and Sharp in a sea of red ink as they struggle to fix their broken TV businesses and overcome criticism that they have lost their way. Panasonic said it was headed for a loss of ...
Source: AFP Japan Airlines, which went bankrupt two years ago in one of the country’s biggest-ever corporate failures, reported a nine-month profit of almost US$2.0 billion on Thursday, in part thanks to the strong yen. The carrier was bailed out by the government after filing for bankruptcy with debts of about JPY2.32 trillion, and emerged ...
Source: Reuters Sony Corp said on Wednesday that Vice President Kazuo Hirai will take over the roles of CEO and president on April 1 from Howard Stringer, who will retain the chairman’s post as the company struggles to regain its standing in the consumer electronics sector in which it was once a driving force. Sony ...
Source: Reuters Morgan Stanley is all set to trump Goldman Sachs in a deal to buy a brokerage seat in Indonesia from PT Tiga Pilar Sekuritas, sources said, as the race to tap the growing financial market in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy intensifies. Goldman was initially in talks with Tiga Pilar last year and had ...
Source: Reuters Consumer inflation stayed high across Asia in January and could pick up further in some countries in coming months, leaving their central banks with few options to cushion the economies from the global slowdown. Growth in consumer prices moderated in January on a year-on-year basis as expected in South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia, ...
Source: AFP Hong Kong’s economy could shrink in the first quarter of 2012 due to weak export markets, before rebounding to post growth of 1 to 3 per cent over the year, the finance secretary said Wednesday. John Tsang warned the global economy was facing a downturn worse than the 2008 financial meltdown as he ...
