Briefly

BEIJING: Bank of China, which is planning a highly anticipated stock listing next year that could be worth up to US$4bil, expects to decide on strategic investors by the end of 2004, a spokesman said yesterday. 

“We have achieved substantial progress in talking with strategic partners, which include at least one foreign investor,” spokesman Wang Zhaowen told reporters. – Reuters 

 

SEOUL: South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering said it has secured fresh orders worth US$1.2bil to build 10 vessels for foreign companies. 

The deals include the building of four container ships for Denmark's AP Moller, three car carriers for Sweden's Wallenius and three liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers – one each for Norway's Bergesen, Russia's Sovcomflot and the UK's Golar, Daewoo Shipbuilding said. – AFX-Asia 

FRANKFURT: Dresdner Bank's Institutional Restructuring Unit (IRU) has agreed to sell 1.2bil euros (US$$1.5bil) of mostly distressed loans to US investment firm Lone Star, the German bank said yesterday. 

This was its first, long-awaited, sale of a large German portfolio. The IRU has made several large disposals of non-German loans including a 2bil euro North American loan portfolio in December last year. – Reuters 

TOKYO: Mitsubishi Heavy Indutries Ltd and Mitsubishi Corp said they received an order worth about 10bil yen to build an automated people mover at Dubai International Airport, the fastest growing air hub in the Persian Gulf region. 

In 2003, some 18 million passengers passed through Dubai airport, compared with 22 million through Japan's Narita airport outside Tokyo and 23 million through Singapore's Changi airport, the two companies said in a joint statement. – AFX-Asia 

SYDNEY: Leighton Holdings Ltd said its Thiess unit has been awarded a contract for the construction of civil infrastructure and initial mining and pre-strip activities for the Curragh North project, owned by Wesfarmers Ltd. 

In a statement, Leighton said the contract is part of a A$290mil capital project previously announced by Wesfarmers. – AFX-Asia  

BANGKOK: Siam Commercial Bank PCL , Thailand's fourth largest bank by assets, reported an annual 13% rise in third quarter net profit yesterday due to higher loan growth and fee income, in line with forecasts. 

The bank made a net profit of 3.64bil baht (US$87.88mil), up from 3.23bil baht in the same period of last year but down from 4.87bil baht in the previous quarter. – Reuters 

SHANGHAI:Banks in Shanghai saw pretax profit rise 20.2% year-on-year to 18.4bil yuan in the first nine months, outpacing last year's full year profit, the Shanghai Banking Regulatory Bureau said. 

By the end of September, banks' non-performing loan ratio fell to a record low of 4.35%, 2.71 percentage points lower than at the beginning of the year. – AFX-Asia 

MANILA: Fast-food chain operator Jollibee Foods Corp said it posted a third quarter net profit of an estimated 317mil pesos, up 6% from the same period last year, on the back of double-digit growth in the sales of all its business units. 

Sales during the quarter rose 24.5% year-on-year to 8.6bil pesos, sustaining the strong growth achieved in the first two quarters of the year. – AFX-Asia 

SEOUL: Pre-tax profits at South Korean brokerages halved in the six months from April to September, from a year earlier, due to falling commission fees, provisional government data showed on Sunday. 

The slide in profits reinforced a call last month by South Korea's central bank, the Bank of Korea, for the overcrowded brokerage industry to be restructured to ease fierce competition that had squeezed profits. – Reuters 

HONG KONG: China's largest cement maker, Anhui Conch Cement Co. Ltd., said yesterday its third quarter net profit fell 31.5% as government austerity measures squeezed prices. 

In the three months ending Sept 30, the firm posted a net profit of 131.63mil yuan (US$15.9mil) compared with 192.17mil yuan in the same period last year, based on mainland Chinese accounting standards. – Reuters 

SEOUL: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co Ltd said its consolidated operating profit dropped 46% from a quarter earlier to 33.5bil won in the three months to September, with margins weakening at its key electronics parts and equipment operations. 

The number represents a 532% increase from a 5.3bil won operating profit a year earlier. – AFX-Asia  

“We have achieved substantial progress in talking with strategic partners, which include at least one foreign investor,” spokesman Wang Zhaowen told reporters. – Reuters