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Business in Asia Today

Softbank projects $126 million pretax loss
TOKYO - Softbank Corp. (TSE:9984) projects a consolidated pretax loss of 15 billion yen ($126 million) for the current year through March, compared with 24.3 billion yen in profit in fiscal 1997, company officials said Wednesday. It would be the first time ever for the company to suffer a group loss on a pretax basis.The bleak estimate reflects a 72% plunge in operating profit in the year ended December at U.S. subsidiary Ziff-Davis Inc. due to lower advertising revenue and restructuring efforts. Amortization of goodwill on the books of internet-related group firms took a heavy toll as well.The company will log 46.2 billion yen in profit on the sale Tuesday of a portion of its holdings in Yahoo! Inc. of the U.S. This should lift group net profit to 32 billion yen, a 210% jump compared to the previous year.

Qantas half year net earnings up 34%
SYDNEY - Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd. has posted a strong 34 percent lift in net earnings for the six months to December 31, 1998, and is confident of "at least" matching last year's profit in the current financial year. Qantas's net profit rose to A$222.9 million (U.S.$141.8 million), struck on revenue of A$4.3 billion.The airline boosted its interim dividend to a fully franked eight Australian cents per share, up 1.5 cents per share.Shares in Qantas jumped after the release of the results.

Foster's sells Guangdong Brewery
BEIJING - Foster's Brewing Group (ASX: FBG) has announcedthe sale of the Guangdong Brewery in China, as part of thecontinuing refocus of the company's regional strategy. HongKong Pan Asia International Ltd. and The Princess Groupconcluded the purchase of the 700,000 hectolitre brewery thisweek. The purchase price and terms of sale are subject toconfidentiality provisions. The president and CEO of Foster's,Ted Kunkel, said the sale represented the next step inachieving Foster's commitment to streamline its Chinaoperations.

ADB to provide Indonesia with $1.5bn in loans
JAKARTA - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has confirmed itwill provide $1.52 billion in loans to Indonesia in 1999 tohelp the country carry out projects in electricity, health,regional administration, small and medium scale enterprises,and state-run companies. The loans will be disbursed in thenext few months. Loans for electricity projects amount to$400 million, health and nutrition $300 million, regionaladministration $320 million, and state-run enterprises,$200 million.

Hyundai to set up life insurance arm
SEOUL - South Korea's Hyundai Group plans to set up alife insurance firm as soon as possible, with one or two ofits affiliates providing capital for the new venture to becalled the Hyundai Life Insurance Co. The Hyundai SecuritiesCo. (KSE:03450) is likely to be a major shareholder in thefirm by putting up 30 billion won ($25.4 million), theminimum capital for a life insurance firm.

Sumitomo Bank, Trust raise bad loan disposals
TOKYO - The Sumitomo Bank (TSE:8318), the Industrial Bank ofJapan (TSE:8302) and the Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co.(TSE:8403) said Wednesday that they would each increase thedisposal of bad loans by 190-300 billion yen ($1.61 billion- $2.54 billion). Faced with such substantial increases -30-90% more than earlier estimates - the banks have alsoannounced downward revisions to their earnings forecasts forthe fiscal year ending March 31. The banks are responding tothe latest loan-loss reserve guidelines and asset-assessmentmanuals formulated by the Financial Supervisory Agency and theFinancial Reconstruction Commission.

Pakistan-Ireland JV looks at Baluchistan minerals
QUETTA - A joint venture for the appraisal, exploration and exploitation of minerals in the Khuzdar area of CentralBaluchistan, between the Bolan Mining Enterprise (BME) ofPakistan and Oran More International of Ireland, is understudy by the Federal Government. A memorandumof understanding already signed by the Irish firm indicatesinvestment of $2 million for a pre-feasibility study on themineral potential. Once the potential is proven, another$300 million is to be invested in the project.

U.S. West buys Telstra's Flexcab billing system
SYDNEY - Telecommunication giant U.S. West has become the sixth international player to buy Australian Telstra Corp. Ltd.'s (ASX:TLS) billing system technology, the so-called Flexcab platform or flexible charging and billing system.Telstra's executive director of customer process and information, Dwight King, declined to reveal the terms of the sale other than to indicate it was a multi-million dollar deal.

Philippines' PNOC-EDC wins bid for Papua New Guinea drilling
MANILA - The Philippine National Oil Company-EnergyDevelopment Corp. (PNOC-EDC) has won an international bid fora one-year, $8.5 million (P330 million) contract to supplygeothermal drilling services in Papua New Guinea. ThePNOC-EDC, an acknowledged supplier of geothermal expertiseworldwide, won over other bidders from Australia, Indonesiaand the United States, Secretary Mario Tiaoqui, of theDepartment of Energy (DOE), said in a report to PresidentEstrada. PNOC-EDC will drill 10 geothermal wells in an openpit mine of the Lihir Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea undercontract.

Japan banks' loan total sees biggest fall since '78
TOKYO - Japanese banks held a total of502.9 trillion yen in outstanding loans as of the end of December 1998, falling 2.1% year on year for the biggest decline since March 1978, the Bank of Japan said in a quarterly survey on Wednesday.Banks have become more cautious about which companies to lend to in an attempt to improve their financial positions.

(Asia Pulse)


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