JAKARTA: The country's largest instant noodle and cooking oil producer PT Indofood Sukses Makmur expects its revenue and net profit to both grow around 15 percent this year, its Chief Executive Eva Riyanti Hutapea said Tuesday.
Indofood's first quarter net profit rose to Rp 308.6 billion (US$35.6 million) from Rp 152.5 billion in the same period last year.
She said the company doesn't have any acquisition plans this year that would have covered securing more oil palm plantations.
It had planned to acquire some plantations to boost crude palm oil production.
"This year the company will focus on the expansion of instant noodle outlets," she told reporters.
She said Indofood plans to boost the number of outlets to 200,000 throughout the country this year, from 150,000 currently. -- Dow Jones
Mizuho to punish staff
TOKYO: Japanese banking giant Mizuho Holdings Inc. will punish more than 100 employees for a string of computer glitches that marred its debut in April as an integrated megabank, a report said Tuesday.
The punishment will be the largest punitive measure taken by a Japanese financial institution, the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
Under the punishment, some Mizuho employees who were directly involved in computer system programming would be forced to step down while Mizuho president Terunobu Maeda would take a 50 percent pay cut for six months, the daily said.
Mizuho has been plagued with embarrassing computer problems since it restructured its three group banks -- Industrial Bank of Japan, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, and Fuji Bank -- into two new banks on April 1. -- AFP
Hyundai averts wage strike
SEOUL: Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker, reached a provisional agreement with its union to avert a wage strike due to start Tuesday, the union said.
Cho Byong-Hee, a leader of the labor union which represents 38,000 workers at the company, said the accord would be put to a vote by members on Friday or Saturday.
The union had demanded a 12 percent pay rise but accepted less in the last-minute negotiations with the company. It did not immediately give details. Hyundai Motor also agreed to increase performance bonuses. -- AFP
Passenger successfully sues SIA
HONG KONG: A British man who said he swallowed fragments of glass in a drink served on a Singapore Airlines flight was awarded HK$53,000 (US$6,800) by a court in the Chinese territory, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Stephen Graham Olding, 48, from Wales, told the court he was drinking pineapple juice on a flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong almost two years ago when he saw pieces of glass the size of five-carat diamonds in the cup, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.
Olding said he did not feel sick on the flight but had a stomach ache the next day, the newspaper said. The airlines contended in court that the drink contained chunks of ice.
The passenger went to a Hong Kong hospital where an X-ray showed abnormalities that looked like glass, but two doctors appointed by Singapore Airlines found nothing unusual, the Post said. -- AP
Daewoo wins order from Spain
SEOUL: Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering Co., the world's second largest shipbuilder, said Tuesday it has won a US$96 million order for two oil tankers from a Spanish shipping giant.
Daewoo said it expects to deliver two 160,000-ton oil takers to Naviera F. Tapias SA of Spain by the third quarter of 2005 under the deal.
The latest contract brought the total amount of shipbuilding orders Daewoo has secured this year to $1.25 billion, it said.
"Tapias is one of our major clients and the large-sized oil tankers are the most profitable sector," Daewoo said in a statement.
The Daewoo shipyard has been fighting financial problems since the firm was spun off from the collapsed Daewoo group in October 2000.
The company posted a net profit of 160.8 billion won ($125 million) on sales of 3.02 trillion won in 2001, but is still under bank control. -- AFP