Asia Pacific

The quickening pace of Russia's rouble devaluation is piling pressure on the currencies of its neighbours and putting those without Moscow's sizeable reserves at risk of foreign debt default and further capital flight, Forbes reported. Investors are shying away from currencies such as Ukraine's hryvnia as the world economic slowdown crushes demand for its exports, global risk aversion shines a harsh light on Kiev's turbulent politics and Russia demonstrates its stranglehold on the country's energy supplies.

Corporate earnings will continue to slump into the first half of 2009 amid the first simultaneous recessions in the U.S., Japan and Europe since World War II, Bloomberg reported on analyst estimates. While profits will rise 4.3 percent for the full year in the U.S., earnings in Europe are projected to decline for all of 2009 and analysts predict worsening reports out of Asia because the recession hasn’t fully hit there yet. Earnings at European oil companies may drop 21 percent in 2009, compared with a 4.7 percent gain last year, according to estimates.

The Taiwan government said Monday it plans to provide 200 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$6.1 billion) in financial aid for struggling large companies, with memory-chip maker Nanya Technology Corp. aiming to submit a proposal to the government for assistance as soon as this week, The Wall Street Journal reported. Taiwan's export-dependent economy is feeling the sharp slowdown in global trade, and the island's producers of dynamic random access memory chips are facing the sector's worst downturn ever.

Expectations of a prolonged economic slump combined with a renewed assault on lawyers’ fees means that top City law firms are bracing themselves for a painful 2009, the Times Online reported. Aware that the good times would not last forever, City law firms have positioned themselves to weather the downturn but their efforts may not provide enough insulation against the current climate. Tony Williams, head of law firm consultancy Jomati, warns that two important hedges that City law firms traditionally rely on in a downturn may prove ineffective next year.

Singapore Tin Industries (STI)’s facilities in Singapore are being sold off amid what appear to be tensions between the shareholders in the company, which is in receivership, MetalBulletin reported. In a statement, China’s Yunnan Tin Co (YTC), the 42% owner of STI, said the firm had been “running improperly” and that there had been “problems with foreign shareholders”. Sources told MB that YTC was not aware that the Singapore assets were being sold off until tender documents were made public.

Factories in China and India joined much of Europe in slashing output and jobs at a record pace in December, another sign the biggest emerging markets were wilting under the recession gripping industrialized nations, Reuters reported. Economists and policymakers had seen China, Russia, India and Brazil, with their vast markets and rising wealth, as the engines of growth that could save the world from recession. Those hopes are fading fast and forecasts are getting gloomier.

China's Lenovo Group, the world's No.4 personal computer maker, is considering a restructuring because of tough economic conditions, China Business News reported on Wednesday. The influential business newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying Lenovo might merge its Greater China and Russia operations with its Asia Pacific operations. David Miller, president for the Asia Pacific region, is expected to resign and Chen Shaopeng, now president of the Greater China region, would head the merged operations, the newspaper said.

For more than two centuries, Waterford crystal and Wedgwood china have been symbols of Irish and British craftsmanship. Now, their future may lie in Asia. Drowning in red ink, the storied brands, which merged in 1986, have moved most ceramics production to Indonesia to cut costs and now plan the same fate for crystal manufacturing. Their headquarters may soon follow. Short of funds for operations and loan payments, Waterford Wedgwood PLC is in advanced talks to sell a controlling stake to a U.S.

Sanlu Group, which was at the center of China's melamine-tainted milk scandal, has leased its plants to a subsidiary of Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co. Ltd., officials said on Tuesday, the Xinhua News Agency reported. The two sides signed the lease on Monday, and the Hebei Sanyuan company will soon start production at the plants, which shut down on Sept. 12, according to the information office of the Shijiazhuang government, Hebei Province. The plants include four producing dairy products, one packing plant and milk cow farms.

Hong Kong lawmakers slammed HSBC for helping to sell Lehman Brothers bonds in the Chinese territory, questioning if Europe's largest bank should have done more to protect local investors from products that may be worthless in the aftermath of the Wall Street firm's collapse, the Associated Press reported. More than 40,000 Hong Kongers bought Lehman-backed investment products through banks, with the total outstanding value of the products estimated at HK$20.2 billion ($2.6 billion), according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which is the territory's de facto central bank.