Bamboo Innovator

Global coffee chain Gloria Jean’s will close up to 25 of its 400 Australian outlets by the end of March as it quits corporate-run stores and becomes a franchise-only business

Michael Bleby Reporter

Gloria Jean’s to close 25 outlets in switch to franchise-only model

Published 17 February 2014 11:10, Updated 17 February 2014 11:58

Global coffee chain Gloria Jean’s will close up to 25 of its 400 Australian outlets by the end of March as it quits corporate-run stores and becomes a franchise-only business. Read more of this post

Manufacturers must specialise and customise: boss of Australia’s high-tech van company Byron Group

Manufacturers must specialise and customise: boss of high-tech van company Byron Group

Published 13 February 2014 11:22, Updated 14 February 2014 09:07

Simon Evans

Byron Group CEO Bill Pike says there’s no future in mass manufacturing. Nic Walker

Bill Pike says there is “absolutely a future for manufacturing in Australia, but it’s not in mass manufacturing’’.

Mr Pike is chief executive of Byron Group, a thriving Sydney company with annual revenues of $50 million that supplies high-tech ambulances, ­correctional services vans and aged-care transport vehicles to domestic and export customers. Read more of this post

Why is Korea becoming less foreign biz-friendly?

2014-02-16 10:05

Why is Korea becoming less foreign biz-friendly?

By Lee Hyo-sik
President Park Geun-hye has been making the sales pitch that Korea is a good place for doing business, whenever she visits foreign countries. At home, the President holds meetings with CEOs of non-Korean companies operating here and visiting heads of multinational firms, asking them to expand investments and hire more workers in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
However, her endeavors, while aimed at helping revive the sagging domestic economy, will not likely bear fruit unless Korea drastically improves its business environment for foreign corporations. Read more of this post

The end of cross-listings globally? BHP mulled leaving London and dropping dual listing

BHP mulled leaving London and dropping dual listing

February 17, 2014 – 3:42PM

James Chessell

BHP gained its London listing in June 2001. Some believe it is now looking to change its dual-listed structure. Photo: Reuters

Has BHP Billiton been reconsidering its dual listing on the Australian and London stock exchanges? The official line from the worlds largest diversified resources is that no serious work has been done on collapsing the dual-listed company structure. A BHP spokewoman said: “We think this structure has worked and continues to serve shareholders well”. Read more of this post

The affiliates of the 10 largest business groups accounted for around 54.66% of South Korea’s total stock market cap

2014-02-17 09:50

Top 10 conglomerates suffer 5.3 pct fall in market cap this year

South Korea’s top 10 conglomerates saw their stock market cap sink 5.32 percent this year, as most affiliated firms suffered a decline in their share prices amid a bearish run on the local stock market, data showed on Monday.
The combined market capitalization of affiliates under their wings stood at 693.86 trillion won ($653 billion) as of Wednesday, compared with 732.84 trillion won at the end of last year, according to the data compiled by the Korea Exchange. Read more of this post

‘It’s not what you do but how you do it’: Chaebol urged to build trust through tranparency and communication

2014-02-16 16:15

‘It’s not what you do but how you do it’

Chaebol urged to build trust through tranparency and communication
Kim Bo-eun

The troubled chaebol chiefs have recently come under the spotlight. Controversies arose as several received reduced sentences in the trials that took place earlier this month. Currently, a handful of conglomerate chairmen are either awaiting trial, on trial or have been sentenced for embezzlement, breach of trust and tax evasion.
This gives a stark picture of the levels of integrity at the nation’s most successful companies. While conglomerates such as Samsung and LG are world leaders in technology, they barely meet standards of integrity. Read more of this post

Bloated national debt; Korea’s total public sector debt was estimated at about 821 trillion won; Korean economy is also saddled in enormous household debt worth nearly 1,000 trillion won and 1,500 trillion won in corporate debt

2014-02-16 16:51

Bloated national debt

Korea’s total public sector debt was estimated at about 821 trillion won as of the end of last year under a new international standard recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The newly calculated debt, owed by both central and local governments and non-financial state companies and organizations, represents 64.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Read more of this post

Gov’t to slash holding co’s required stake in 3rd-tier subsidiary from 100% to 20%

Gov’t to slash holding co’s required stake in 3rd-tier subsidiary from 100% to 20%

Shin Hyun-gyu, Kim Yoo-tae

2014.02.13 17:54:14

The South Korean government decided to implement a measure to induce conglomerates to invest their internal reserves to stimulate the creative economy and venture business industry.  Read more of this post

Forex in the spotlight: Banks are braced for multibillion-dollar fines and years of litigation from a global probe

February 16, 2014 6:15 pm

Forex in the spotlight

By FT reporters

Banks are braced for multibillion-dollar fines and years of litigation from a global probe

The annual Prime Finance get-together in The Hague is a rather arid affair, with a coterie of academics, lawyers and the odd banker gathering to discuss the finer points of jurisprudence in the international markets. Read more of this post

Tycoons quarrel over Italy’s young jobless; Two of Italy’s business heavyweights have gone to war over the country’s soaring levels of youth unemployment

Tycoons quarrel over Italy’s young jobless

Two of Italy’s business heavyweights have gone to war over the country’s soaring levels of youth unemployment

Italy’s youth unemployment reached a record 41.6pc in January

By Josephine McKenna, in Rome

11:04PM GMT 16 Feb 2014

Two of Italy’s business heavyweights have gone to war over the country’s soaring levels of youth unemployment. Read more of this post

Home prices could drop by up to 15 per cent: DBS chief

Home prices could drop by up to 15 per cent: DBS chief

Monday, Feb 17, 2014

Mok Fei Fei

The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – House prices could plunge by up to 15 per cent this year amid a softening property market, said DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta on Friday.

Mr Gupta also said that he expects property cooling measures to be wound back if prices start heading south. Read more of this post

Malaysia is 3rd cheapest place to buy a Big Mac

Malaysia is 3rd cheapest place to buy a Big Mac

Sunday, February 16, 2014 – 16:47

New Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has been ranked one of the cheapest places in the world to purchase a Big Mac, according to The Economist.

The British news magazine’s annual “Big Mac” Index, which gauges if global currencies are at their correct level, has ranked Malaysia third behind India and South Africa as the cheapest place in the world to purchase the McDonald’s signature burger. Read more of this post

World’s largest solar plant scorching birds in Nevada desert

World’s largest solar plant scorching birds in Nevada desert

Published February 15, 2014

FoxNews.com

A stretch of the Mojave Desert has been transformed by hundreds of thousands of mirrors into the largest solar power plant of its type in the world, but the milestone is being met with criticism from environmental groups concerned about the effect of solar energy on desert wildlife.  Read more of this post