China paper hints at anti-Japan sanctions

BEIJING: The mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party warned onMonday that Japan’s economy could suffer for up to 20 years if Beijingchose to impose sanctions over an escalating territorial row.

Anti-Japanese protests have been held across China in recent daysover a dispute on a group of small islands in the East China Seaclaimed by both countries but controlled by Tokyo.

The row intensified last week when the Japanese government boughtthree of the islands, effectively nationalising them, and Chinaresponded by sending patrol ships into the waters around them.

Trade sanctions between Asia’s two biggest economies could cast apall over growth on the continent, which major Western countries arecounting on to drive recovery from the global slowdown.

A commentary in the People’s Daily newspaper said the Japaneseeconomy has already experienced two lost decades from the 1990s andwas suffering further weakness in the aftermath of the world financialcrisis and 2011 earthquake.

WASHINGTON: It seems like a terrible time to be launching a newsoperation.But there are opportunities and niches, and the newdigital media launch called Quartz from Atlantic Media Companyseeks to exploit them.

Quartz is set to launch in the coming weeks as a “100 percentdigital” news operation covering “the most important themes of thenew global economy,” said editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney.

Quartz has been recruiting a small number of veteran journalists foran overall news staff of around 25 people. The operation will featuretablet and mobile displays as well as a desktop website, qz.com.

“There is an opportunity to do great journalism on a digitalplatform,” Delaney, a former managing editor of The Wall StreetJournal Online, told AFP.“It’s a great time to launch a proBject likethis. We’ve learned the lessons of what works over the last fewyears.”

Quartz will offer free content, with revenue comingfrom advertising, aiming to cover key global businessissues and reach readers around the world.“We’rereally confident in the ad-supported model,” Delaneysaid. “There has been strong advertiser interest.”

The name Quartz was chosen “because it embodiesthe new brand’s essential character: global, disruptiveand digital. Quartz, the mineral, is found all over theworld, and plays an important role in tectonic activity,”a statement said.

SEOUL: South Korea’s state-run think-tank on Monday cut itsforecast for the country’s growth this year to 2.5 percent,citing the Eurozone debt crisis.

The Korea Development Institute’s latest outlook is wellbelow the government’s revised growth forecast in June of 3.3percent, and over a percentage point below a May predictionof 3.6 percent.

The country’s exports dropped sharply for a second straightmonth in August, suggesting the export-reliant economy isstruggling with shrinking demand overseas.

It said Asia’s fourth-largest economy is expected to expand 3.4percent next year, gradually recovering from the slowdowncaused by slow exports and sluggish domestic demand.

MANILA: The Philippine economy could grow by almost sixpercent this year thanks to improving business optimismdespite a series of destructive storms in recent months,officials said on Monday.

The economy, which grew by 6.1 percent on year in the firsthalf, could do even better in the rest of the year as thegovernment implements measures to boost laggard sectors,socioeconomic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

He added outsourced businesses, trade and tourism were alldoing well and agriculture and manufacturing were expectedto pick up in the second half.

“With the healthy macroeconomic fundamentals and thehigher business optimism, we will most likely hit the upperend of the 5-6 (percent) target,” he told a forum with investors.

Heavy rains and storms last month and early-September,which left huge parts of the capital flooded, killings scoresand displacing millions, had only a minimal effect on theeconomy, Balisacan added.

He said farmers still had time to re-plant after the storms,adding that the floods affected mostly small businesses andnot the large factories or call centres.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez cited the 11.68 percentrise in tourist arrivals to 2.2 million in the first half of theyear as a further reason for optimism.

Central bank governor Amando Tetangco reported a 5.3percent rise in remittances from the millions of Filipinoworking overseas to $13.3 billion in the first seven months of2012.The officials also reported increased interest frompotential foreign investors, following President BenignoAquino’s election in 2010 on an anti-corruption platform.

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s unemployment rate fell to eight percent ofthe workforce in the three months from May to July, the lowest inmore than a decade, official data showed on Monday.

The number of unemployed people fell by 311,000 over theperiod to reach 2.226 million, Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK)said on its website on the basis of a survey of 95,699 people.

Unemployed rate stood at 9.2 percent in the same period of 2011.Since then the number of people in jobs increased from 24.901million to 25.577 million.

Turkey’s economy staged a spectacular recovery from the globalcrisis, growing by 8.9 percent in 2010 and by 8.5 percent in2011.Unemployment remains a major challenge for thegovernment in a 73 million strong country where many youngpeople enter the workforce each year.

Turkey’s jobless rate is determined through householdsurveys across the country, which are then used tomake a nationwide three-month projection.

But experts say the figures do not reflect the overallpicture because of widespread undeclared or hiddenunemployment, or the employment of highly-educated people in menial jobs. Turkishunemployment rocketed to an annual 10.3 percent in2001 following a major financial crisis, from a steady6.5 percent in the previous year.

Major Companies Declare Results

By our correspondent

KARACHI: Attock Petroleum Limited (APL) announced on Mondaya final cash dividend of Rs32.50 per share though its profit-after-taxfor the year ended June 30 slightly down by four percent to Rs4.12billion from Rs4.25 billion last year, said a statement of the company.

The divided was in addition to interim cash dividend of Rs17.50 pershare. Therefore, total divided for the year was calculated at Rs50 pershare, according to the profit and loss account of the company.

The earnings per share stood at Rs59.61 from 61.58 last year.

Net sales of the company rose by 39 percent to Rs176.81 billion fromRs127.03 billion last year. However, the financing cost increased by 77percent to Rs1.21 billion from Rs682.66 million.

POL earns profits of Rs11.85bn The profit-after-tax of Pakistan Oilfields Limited increased

by 10 percent to Rs11.85 billion for the year ended June 30from Rs10.81 billion earnings last year, said a statement onMonday.

This translated into the earnings per share of Rs50.11 fromRs45.72 last year, according to the profit and loss account ofthe company.

The company announced a final cash dividend of Rs35 pershare. This was in addition to Rs17.50 interim dividend.Therefore, the cumulative dividend for the year stood atRs52.50 per share.

Net sales of the company increased to Rs30.82 billion fromRs27.10 billion last year. Exploration cost declined by 45percent to Rs1.07 billion from Rs593.55 million. However,the financing cost increased by 206 percent to Rs684.57million from Rs223.93 million.

ARL profit rises to Rs2.73bn

Attock Refinery Limited posted a net profit of Rs2.73 billion forthe year ended June 30, which was 25 percent higher than Rs2.18billion last year, said a statement.

The net profit included profit-after-tax from refinery operationsof Rs1.14 billion and income from non-refinery operations ofRs1.58 billion during the period under review.

Last year, the company earned Rs1.11 billion from refineryoperations and Rs1.06 billion from non-refinery operations, saidthe profit and loss account of the company. Therefore, totalearnings per share stood at Rs32.07 from Rs25.63 last year.

The company also announced a final cash dividend of Rs6 pershare. This was in addition to Rs1.50 per share the company hasalready paid to the shareholders The sales of the company surgedby 33 percent to Rs154.38 billion during the period under reviewfrom Rs116.38 billion last year. The financing cost increased by 22times to Rs994.73 million from Rs45.45 million last year.

Fauji Cement earns over half-a-billion profit

Fauji Cement Company Limited reported a profit-after-taxof Rs552.59 million for the year ended June 30, which was30 percent higher than Rs425.66 million earned in theprevious year, said a statement issued by the company.

The earnings per share (EPS) were calculated lower at 29paisas against 52 paisas last year, according to the profitand loss account of the company available with the KarachiStock Exchange.

M Affan Ismail, an analyst at BMA Capital, reported thatEPS diluted in the year under review due to addition of1,905 million shares. The increase in earnings was primarilyattributable to strong gross margin coupled with improvedsales, he said. Phenomenal surge in cement prices coupledwith meager decline in coal prices resulted in gross margingrowth of nine percentage points to 27 percent.

Moreover, the utilisation of additional capacity of 2.1million tons resulted in higher sales, which furtherimproved the profits.

The net sales of the company surged by 143 percent toRs11.52 billion from Rs4.74 billion last year. However,financing cost on loan obtained for capacity expansionkept the earnings under pressure, as the costaugmented to Rs1.83 billion from Rs103.92 million lastyear.