Wesfarmers Goes Against the Grain; CEO Richard Goyder talks about playing the long game with investments and the conglomerate’s commitment to coal

Wesfarmers Goes Against the Grain

CEO Richard Goyder talks about playing the long game with investments and the conglomerate’s commitment to coal.

RHIANNON HOYLE

Dec. 8, 2013 11:08 a.m. ET

Wesfarmers Ltd. WES.AU -0.10% has its fingers in many pies: from supermarkets to coal mining, financial services to chemicals. But the appetite of chief executive and company veteran Richard Goyder is far from sated. Read more of this post

QBE shares plunge on profit warning

QBE shares plunge on profit warning

December 10, 2013

Clancy Yeates

QBE Group has shocked investors by revealing that its bottom line will plunge into the red this financial year and profits will remain under pressure throughout 2014, as the insurer reels from its aggressive expansion in the United States. The country’s biggest insurer suffered a savage selloff on Monday, after chief executive John Neal downgraded earnings for the third time in 16 months, laying much of the blame with former management led by Frank O’Halloran. Read more of this post

Australian Central Bank Gov. Glenn Stevens Warns Against Hubris

Australian Central Bank Gov. Glenn Stevens Warns Against Hubris

Stevens Faces Challenge of Weaning Economy Off Reliance on Mining

JAMES GLYNN

Dec. 8, 2013 3:13 a.m. ET

SYDNEY—Glenn Stevens steered Australia safely through the global financial crisis as head of the country’s central bank, taking decisive action that included cutting interest rates by 100 basis points in a day. Now, as growth again slows and joblessness rises, he warns Australia faces a new threat: hubris. Read more of this post

India’s Ruling Party Badly Beaten in State Elections, a bad sign for the Congress party as the world’s largest democracy heads toward national elections next year

India’s Ruling Party Badly Beaten in State Elections

NIHARIKA MANDHANA And ERIC BELLMAN

Dec. 8, 2013 4:01 a.m. ET

NEW DELHI—India’s ruling party took a beating in state elections early poll results showed Sunday, a bad sign for the Congress party as the world’s largest democracy heads toward national elections next year. Read more of this post

India Recommends Incentives to Aid Sugar Mills

India Recommends Incentives to Aid Sugar Mills

RAJESH ROY

Dec. 6, 2013 6:49 a.m. ET

NEW DELHI—An Indian ministerial panel on Friday recommended a package of financial incentives, including interest-free loans, to help loss-making sugar mills to sustain their production this year. Read more of this post

Small steps to Mars are a big leap for Indian companies

Updated: Monday December 9, 2013 MYT 10:57:04 AM

Small steps to Mars are a big leap for Indian companies

An employee works on the production line inside the heavy electrical manufacturing unit of Larsen & Turbo in Mumbai. – Reuters

NEW DELHI: Indian companies that built most of the parts for the country’s recently launchedMars mission are using their low-cost, high-tech expertise in frugal space engineering to compete for global aerospace, defence and nuclear contracts worth billions. Read more of this post

War Between McDonalds India And CPRL (Bakshi) Continues To Grow

War Between McDonalds India And CPRL (Bakshi) Continues To Grow

SULABH PURI0DEC 6, 2013, 01.02 PM

It has been seen in the past that multi-national partnerships and joint ventures in India come to an abrupt end or a staggering slow after years of working together. This time the war is between McDonalds India and their joint venture partners Connaught Plaza Restaurants Ltd (CPRL). The two entered into a 50-50 partnership 18 years ago and now everything seems to be in a boil. In august this year, McDonalds had asked Vikram Bakshi, MD of the company to step down. Reports suggest that Bakshi had been sent a notice by McDonalds India and now as a counter he has written to his colleagues challenging the notice. CPRL has come back and said that the US based chains intentions are to end the JV between the two companies and is ill-intentioned. The feud between Bakshi and McDonalds started when two of the board members rejected the plea to re-nominated Bakshi as the MD in August 2013. On August 30, McDonalds removed Bakshi as the MD and said that the Indian leg will now be lead by the board instead. The battle seems to be growing as the days are passing and the future of the JV is in the pits. A quick solution is required for one of the biggest fast food chains in the country to perform well. Sources also tell that courts are being moved on the issue, but nothing official has come out of it yet.

A Public Works Boom in Japan Has Echoes From the Lost Decade

December 8, 2013

A Public Works Boom in Japan Has Echoes From the Lost Decade

By HIROKO TABUCHI

SAGA, Japan — The bulldozers started up with a rumble this year in this bucolic corner of southern Japan, unleashing a construction frenzy — and a sinking feeling of déjà vu. Read more of this post

Pension investment fund must ditch JGBs: Ito

Pension investment fund must ditch JGBs: Ito

BY ANNA KITANAKA AND SHIGEKI NOZAWA

BLOOMBERG

DEC 6, 2013

The world’s biggest retirement fund needs to cut bond holdings now because the Japanese government will follow an advisory panel’s recommendation that the wealth manager seek higher returns, the panel’s head said. Read more of this post

To grasp Japan, you need to step through the looking-glass

December 5, 2013 4:26 pm

To grasp Japan, you need to step through the looking-glass

By Peter Tasker

Far from fighting demands for higher wages, Abenomics encourages them, writes Peter Tasker

For anyone with memories of Britain in the 1970s, Abenomics is like a trip through the looking-glass. Instead of reining in credit growth, Japanese policy makers are trying to prod borrowers and lenders out of their torpor. Rather than preventing capital flight through exchange controls, the government of Shinzo Abe, prime minister, is pressing for big increases in overseas investment by Japan’s Godzilla-sized public pension fund. Far from fighting demands for higher wages, it is encouraging them. Read more of this post

Who is responsible for a corporate scandal?

Who is responsible for a corporate scandal?

BY TERUHIKO MANO

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

DEC 7, 2013

Recent scandals involving Japanese businesses have included bank loans to the underworld and misrepresentations of restaurant menus at leading hotels, and many of the media reports have focused on how management takes responsibility for the mess. I would like to highlight three points that need to be taken into account when discussing such issues: Read more of this post

Costco Korea’s sales growth hits wall; Sales growth slows while Traders, Vic Market expand

2013-12-08 16:04

Costco’s sales growth hits wall

Sales growth slows while Traders, Vic Market expand
By Park Ji-won

Global retail giant Costco is losing its presence in the Korean market. For more than 10 years, it was known as a key warehouse retailer, but in recent years, Korean warehouses, such as Traders and Vic Market, have aggressively expanded their market shares. Read more of this post

Hyundai Elevator vs. Schindler

2013-12-09 16:32

Hyundai Elevator vs. Schindler

Partners become enemies following Hyundai’s capital increase plan
By Kim Rahn

They used to be partners.
Hyundai Elevator and Schindler Holding AG used to maintain friendly relations. Now they are growling at each other ㅡ the former claims the latter is attempting to take it over, while the latter denounces the former’s alleged poor management. Read more of this post

Thai Leader Yingluck Shinawatra Says Instability May Drag On; the word for “nine” in Thai sounds like the term for “step forward”

Thai Leader Yingluck Shinawatra Says Instability May Drag On

Prime Minister Is Under Pressure as Demonstrators Plan Fresh Rallies

JAMES HOOKWAY

Dec. 7, 2013 7:32 a.m. ET

BANGKOK— Yingluck Shinawatra still looks the part of Thailand’s prime minister. Perched on a chair at the Venetian-Gothic government headquarters in Bangkok, she counts off her successes since thousands of opposition protesters last month launched a campaign to unseat her—chief of which is that she is still prime minister. Read more of this post

Thailand’s Revolution; The opposition has become fanatical and self-deluded

December 9, 2013, 11:53 a.m. ET

Thailand’s Revolution

The opposition has become fanatical and self-deluded.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved Thailand’s Parliament Monday and announced that she would lead the ruling Puea Thai Party into elections in early February. This is a prudent move to pull the circuit-breaker on protests aimed at replacing the elected government with a “people’s council.” Earlier this month rioters provoked clashes that left at least three people dead, while the government won international praise for its restraint. Read more of this post