Motorcycle sales rise 18%: Astra
Motorcycle sales rise 18%: Astra
JAKARTA: Sales of new motorcycles in Indonesia surged 18 percent on month to 231,523 units in June, PT Astra International said Tuesday.
The company didn't give any reasons for the increase.
Astra, which makes and sells Honda motorcycles with Japan's Honda Motor Co., said it sold 125,149 motorcycles in June, up 12 percent from a month earlier.
Its Honda motorcycle sales rose 12 percent to 112,097 units in June.
In the first six months of this year, Astra sold 722,112 motorcycles, up 7.1 percent from 674,466 units a year earlier.
Astra said it still dominated the market during the first half, with around 58 percent of total motorcycle sales in the country.
Cycle & Carriage Ltd. of Singapore holds a 34.3 percent stake in Astra International.
Astra didn't provide details on the sales figures for other Indonesian motorcycle makers. -- Dow Jones
;; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-electronic LG Electronics profit slumps 24% JP/14/electronic
LG Electronics profit slumps 24%
SEOUL: LG Electronics, South Korea's largest home appliances maker, said on Tuesday its net profit slumped 24 percent year-on- year in the second quarter due to the economic slowdown.
For the three months to June, LG's net profit fell to 258 billion won (US$218 million) from 340.7 billion won a year ago. Sales slowed to 4.67 trillion won from 4.89 trillion won.
Recurring profit dropped to 361.6 billion won from 489.7 billion won and operating profit fell to 265.4 billion won from 429.4 billion won.
LG Electronics, the flagship of South Korea's second largest conglomerate LG Group, said the fall in earnings reflects weaker demand for handsets and display products, and the negative impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
In the six months to June, LG's sales rose 11 percent year-on- year to 9.84 trillion won but operating profit was down 14 percent to 682.6 billion won and net profit fell 20 percent to 446.9 billion won. -- AFP
;; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-airlines Vietnam Airlines, Citigroup ink deal JP/14/airlines
Vietnam Airlines, Citigroup ink deal
HANOI: Vietnam Airlines and Citigroup signed Tuesday a financing agreement for the purchase of a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, in the first deal to be guaranteed in Vietnam by the U.S. Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank.
The aircraft is the first of four Boeing jets the state-owned flag carrier has commissioned in line with its fleet expansion plans.
In October 2002, Ex-Im Bank, the official U.S. export credit agency gave a preliminary commitment to guarantee the purchase of the four aircraft, which are worth nearly US$700 million.
The board of Ex-Im Bank signed off on the first plane on Thursday. It is scheduled for delivery next month.
"We hope this will be the first of many Ex-Im Bank supported purchase of U.S. goods and services by Vietnamese companies and government agencies," Raymond Burghardt, the U.S. ambassador to the communist nation, told reporters. -- AFP ;; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-Reuters Reuters back in profit JP/14/reuters
Reuters back in profit
LONDON: British financial information giant Reuters swung back into profit in the first six months of the year, it said Tuesday, while also warning that revenues had dipped sharply over the period.
In the six months to the end of June, Reuters saw underlying pre-tax profits of 87 million pounds (123 million euros, US$139 million), compared with a 10 million pound loss over the same period of 2002.
The profit was well above analysts' expectations of a figure around 30-50 million pounds.
However, actual pre-tax profits were a more modest 16 million pounds against a loss of 88 million in the year-earlier period.
And over the same period the group's revenues slumped by 12 percent to 1.62 billion pounds.
Over the course of the 2003 revenues were expected to dip 11 percent in total, Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer said, while insisting that the first-half results were "solid". -- AFP