Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Monday, April 1, 2013

B&E This Fortnight

INTERNATIONALBUSINESS, ECONOMY & FINANCE

Riding with Germans
While rivals Hewlett-Packard and Dell made headlines in the acquisitions market last year, the Chinese computer giant Lenovo is making some big ticket bids of its own this year. Four months earlier Lenovo signed a strategically positioned JV with NEC Corp to sell laptops in Japan. The company is now all set to buy Germany’s Medion AG in a deal that values the consumer electronics company at $671 million. The deal is expected to double the market share to more than 14% of the PC market in Germany, which is Europe’s biggest economy today and give the combined company a share of around 7.5% in the western European PC market. Hewlett-Packard accounted for 17.6% of the global PC market last quarter, declining from 18% a year earlier, Taipei-based Acer dropped to 12.9% from 14.6% and Lenovo, the fourth largest, increased its share to 9.7% from 8.2%. In the past year, HP made over $7 billion in acquisitions and for its part, Dell bought IT consulting firm Perot Systems for $3.9 billion in 2009, and more recently, Boomi, a cloud computing integration service, for an undisclosed sum. Lenovo shares fell by 3% on the announcement amidst concerns of investing in a slow growing market like Germany. In addition competitors like Dell and HP are moving into the high margin consulting business, while Lenovo is still stuck in hardware.

Ford’s Smallest
Automobile companies are bracing themselves for the rising costs of transportation. Ford Motors, the world’s No. 4 auto maker is developing its smallest engine ever to squeeze out greater fuel savings. The new EcoBoost, a three cylindrical engine, is designed to have a higher fuel economy without sacrificing power & performance. The engine should be available in 90% of Ford’s vehicles in North America by 2013. The company’s profits of $6.6 billion in 2010 have indicated a long awaited rebound as Ford lost $14.6 billion in 2008.

Pandora raises IPO
The music streaming superstar Pandora has dominated the headlines with its announcement of a public offering, which would help them to raise $142 million; announcing a target price range of $7 to $9 per share price. Pandora, which tops the list in terms of music experiences, has recorded a revenue of $43 million during the first quarter by averaging a new user every second with a list of 90 million registered users. Pandora expects to raise $96 million to $142 million.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist). For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
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Monday, February 11, 2013

‘‘Japanese domestic market has reached to near saturation”

Satobumi Taguchi, Deputy General Manager (Paper Trade Dept.), Overseas Division, Nippon Paper Group, Japan, talks to B&E’s Gyanendra Kumar Kashyap & Ashutosh Harbola about Nippon’s vision 2015 and its overseas expansion.

B&E: What prompted Nippon to integrate four mills in the Hokkaido region? Is it about improving the cooperative structure or just a strategic move?
(ST): Well at present, there are four plants, and Nippon Paper Industries decided to integrate three mills, namely Asahikawa Mill, Yufutsu Mill and Shiraoi Mill operated by the company in the Hokkaido area.There was only one manager who was managing the whole facility at the respective plants. Subsequently, it became a problem as we had to focus on different plants, too. And through this integration move, the managers now can share information between each other. In addition, it’s becoming profitable for us and we are certainly leveraging from it.

B&E : In 2008-2009, there was a drop in demand of paper coupled by digital documentation. How will the paper industry cope it?
(ST): The market is shifting from the holistic music players to scratch iPod or iPad. However, the best part for Japan is that the economical condition is slightly better than the general ones. The import paper also comes to Japan. That’s why Microelectronics Technology Inc. (MTI) has a holding and this trend can’t stop. Our goal is to move beyond domestic market by 2015. Despite having a big market outside, the domestic demand was not there earlier. We want to expand our overseas plans, and India is certainly the high growth potential market. Unfortunately, there are not many manufacturers of paper from small to medium market.

B&E: What is your 2015 vision and what figures are you looking to boost your business?
(ST): The Japanese domestic market is near stauration. Our main focus will be to become one of the top five players in the global pulp and paper industry by accelerating our overseas business development to achieve growth. Also, we would aim at 30% of our revenues coming from the overseas market compared to the present 10% level.

B&E: What kind of investments are you looking outside Japan?
(ST): We have already spread our wings in Australia, China and Taiwan. As far as India is concerned, we do not have any expansion plans right now, but within a year or two we look forward to expand our business. India is an important market for us, it is a high potential growth market. In addition, it is one of the fastest growing market and has a lot of potential and the paper domain is very strong here. There are not many producers, but the demand is comparatively high.

B&E: Do you have any plans to tie up with the local players like the Savant group to enter in the Indian market?
(ST): Looking at the current industry dynamics in India, tieups would certainly make a lot of sense. And lots of debates are going on the issue. But to cater to the needs of Indian market and to be counted amongst the formiddable players in the growing Indian market, we will have to think of partnering with local players sooner or later.

B&E: Digital process outsourcing are digital in nature. Don’t you feel such processes are a threat to the paper and pulp industry?
(ST): The use of such process is increasing among the business fraternity. But you need a leaf of paper as a proof of any document and that’s where you take a print for the same. Globally, numbers show a rise in the consumption of paper, even when there are CD-ROM and hard disc. So, I won’t consider it as a possible threat.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

Posted by at
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