Visa records 26% rise in sales

JAKARTA: Visa Indonesia said on Monday its card sales volume, or the total value of transactions made using Visa cards, grew by 26 percent in the first month of the year compared to the same period last year.

The sales volume in the first quarter of the year rose to US$900 million, the company said in a statement.

It further said the total number of Visa cards issued in the country at the end of March this year reached 5.6 millions, up by 9 percent over the same period last year. -- JP

;JP;Agencies ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-BMW-distribution-KL BMW takes over distribution in KL JP/14/Brief

BMW takes over distribution in KL

KUALA LUMPUR: German luxury car maker BMW will take over the distribution of its vehicles in Malaysia ahead of market liberalization here in 2005, a report said Monday.

BMW will sign a pact Tuesday with local franchise Sime Darby Bhd. to set up a joint venture company, in which it will hold a 51 percent stake and Sime the balance, the New Straits Times reported.

The move ended months of negotiations between the two parties and came after BMW decided last year to make Malaysia the regional center for its Asian operations, it said.

Sources were quoted as saying that Sime, which sells around 2,000 BMW vehicles a year in the country, would retain its assembly and retail rights.

The Bavarian company is expected to set up an office in the Cyberjaya township south of Kuala Lumpur as well as a distribution base in the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in southern Johor state, the daily said. -- AFP

;JP;Agencies ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-SKGlobal-court SK Global under court receivership JP/14/Brief

SK Global under court receivership

SEOUL: Key South Korean creditors of SK Global agreed Monday to put the troubled trading unit of SK Group under court receivership in pursuit of a purely domestic bailout plan opposed by its foreign lenders.

"They unanimously endorsed the plan as proposed by Hana Bank to put SK Global under court receivership," Kwon In-ki of leading local creditor Hana Bank said after tense talks at a steering committee meeting of 12 main local creditors.

Kwon added that the decision to put SK Global into court receivership was inevitable as local creditors had failed to narrow their differences with their foreign counterparts over the firm's debt rescheduling.

SK Global's crisis began earlier this year when the firm admitted to inflating earnings by more than US$1.2 billion in 2001 to hide losses.

SK Global's total debt stood at 9.93 trillion won ($8.43 billion) at the end of June, according to Hana. SK Global's total assets were 5.59 trillion won at the end of last year. -- AFP