Asian financial news

Asian financial news

SINGAPORE (AFP): Agence France-Presse has signed a joint venture agreement with three major media groups to launch a specialized economic and financial news service in Asia, AFP chairman and chief executive Lionel Fleury announced yesterday.

Shareholders with AFP in the new company, AFX-ASIA, are Britain's Financial Times group, the Japanese group Nikkei, owner of the Nihon Keizai daily, and the Australian Associated Press (AAP) news agency. AFP-Extel News, a joint subsidiary of AFP and Extel Financial created four years ago in London, has also take a direct participation in the new venture.

"AFP thus confirms the major interest it has in specialized economic news, as demonstrated by its launch of AFX-News four years ago," said Fleury.

The new company, with headquarters in Singapore, will set up 13 bureaus throughout Asia and employ 35 economic journalists. It will also have access to news published by each of its partners.

The new service is expected to start in the second quarter of 1995.