17/07/2014 Asia Business Report

after a massive police operation to track down people accessing child

abuse images online. Now on BBC News all the latest

business news live from Singapore. South Korean Japanese social

messaging services plans a multibillion dollar share listing,

as it expands overseas. China's crackdown on luxury.

Thank you for joining us. Before we take a look at lines messaging

service, we bring some news just in, `` Lines. The Australian Parliament

a short time ago voted to scrap the controversial carbon tax on the

country 's big polluters. A major victory for the Conservative Prime

Minister Tony Abbott. It creates uncertainty as to how Australia will

meet carbon reduction goals. We can bring you more on this issue in the

next hour, when we speak to our correspondent, Phil Mercer, in

Sydney. Meanwhile, mobile messaging service Line has announced plans

offering services in Tokyo, New York, or both. It could be worth

upwards of $10 billion. It's competitor was bought by Facebook

for $19 billion, Whatsapp. But, are they worth the money? Janet Yellen

suggested that some social media valuations were stretched. Our

correspondent explains why messaging services are so popular in Asia. It

is the future, if you look at it. When it comes to Asia, Mobile is the

first screen. When we will look `` when we look at the listing from

Line, I'm not surprised this company is doing well. It has half $1

billion of revenue. That is a major footprint in Asia. If you look at

all the analyst reports, the revenue from all of these applications is

going to grow to about $25 billion in the next three years. You are

optimistic about social media applications, what are the risks and

the downside? I don't think there is any, these are the people and

consumers who have never used messaging applications before. It's

an opportunity for all of them to use applications, and for

advertisers to advertise and reach consumers. The engagement is very

high on this. A lot of telecommunications companies here in

Asia are up in arms, they are complaining they are losing business

to be used messaging services. They are losing business because they are

not innovative enough to come up with new services. Basically, now,

the major footprint that they want to get into is the US market? Yes,

that is the purpose of the listing, to really expand the operation out

of the US, the big advertising dollars actually set in US and

Europe. Line is looking to IPO to help them without. Will it ever go

the same way as Line and go international? It will, and they are

doing that now. They have a huge marketing campaign, especially in

Spain, Mexico and Brazil. They have 400 million users. I believe that it

is among the top three of the messaging applications, after

Whatsapp and Line, it could go on to expand and be a formidable

competition. In other business News, US media

giant Time Warner has rejected an initial takeover bid from rival 21st

Century Fox. The proposal by the firm, owned by media mogul Rupert

Murdoch, was made by last month `` was made last month. But first

century Fox says they are not in talks with Time Warner about

pursuing the deal further. EBay has announced profits of 707 $6 million.

Shares in the company were up by 1.5%, in after hours trading in New

York. `` Chile comes after a challenging quarter for the firm, in

May, the company said that 145 million customer accounts could have

been compromised. Apple have agreed to pay as much as $400 million to

settle a lawsuit following claims that it can `` colluded in fixing

the cost of online books. The ruling found that Apple orchestrated a

conspiracy with five publishers to artificially raise electronic book

prices. Apple has denied any wrongdoing.

To Amazon, it appears to be preparing a new subscription service

which allows users to download as many Kindle e`book 's as they like.

It indicates the available library could equal more than 600,000

titles. Kindle would compete with oysters e`book application, but

Amazon has deleted the details were now. Fine wines improve with age,

but the market for them is not so intent on maturity, but it is the

emerging market in China that shows a fondness for new wines. Many wine

merchants are looking for growth themselves. Our correspondent found

out. At the end of a busy work week, this

man likes to relax by meeting his friends, and they usually come

here, to this popular wine bar in Singapore, to enjoy a glass of wine

or two. He enjoys his wine so much that he has built up a collection at

home. I started drinking wine 15 years ago. I have 150 bottles at

home. It tastes good, I like it. I have a healthy spread of red and

white wines, I have a lot of German ones, Chardonnay from Australia,

Bordeaux, Burgundy... It is quite a mix. He is not unusual. He is part

of a growing number of consumers in Asia willing to spend on wine. Much

is made of the wine market in China. The Chinese now consume the

most amount of red wine in the world. Overtaking Europe only last

year. 40% of the wine consumed in Asia is outside of China. Southeast

Asia is becoming an important market. It has become such a

promising market, that an established British wine merchant

has set up a sales office in Singapore, in order to cater for the

region. It is estimated that 24 million litres of wine every year

come into Singapore, and of that, only five million stay here. The

rest is exported to all of the other countries in South East Asia.

Southeast Asia now accounts for 3% of the firm 's global wine sales.

They expect it to grow to 15% of the global business in five years. Wine

cellars are looking up markets beyond China, following the nation

's clamp down on corruption, which has hit wine consumption. Wine and

spirit firms have reported lower sales because of it. Increasing

disposable income, and growing wealth in the region of 600 million

people, is now making Southeast Asia a market with the growth potential

of wine being uncorked. A European `based firm is selling a

stake to a Chinese firm. The Beijing group paid 106 two $5 million for a

quarter of the company. Our correspondent caught up with the

founder, finding out of China would be the newest frontier. Our business

in the UK and in Europe, it is exploding, and we are building in

Asia, and China is an important market. China will be doing $5

billion in revenue I believe. How tricky is it to source that many

coconuts? It is very tricky, and today it is the biggest barrier to

entry in this category. Sourcing. We built an incredible supply chain

across five countries, with eight manufacturing facilities that we

have built. We have this incredible chain that is cracking 1.5 million

coconuts a day. That is only the beginning, the current supply

footprint will allow us to build the business into $1.6 billion business.

By getting water from 5% of the commercially harvested coconuts in

the regions of which we produce. Where did they come from? 40% from

Brazil, the rest from Mexico, India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. I am

looking at the wall behind, pictures of Demi Moore, Madonna, they are

celebrity investors. Over my shoulder, there is a photo of

Rhianna, a brand ambassador for you. How important has the celebrity

endorsement been? Critical, when we began the business, everyone

believed that it was a fad, small niche. When the dollar invested in

the business, putting real dollars into the business, and promoted the

brand, as did Matthew McConnachie `` Matthew McConaughey, if they are

investing and putting dollars into it, there is something there.

Before we go, a quick look at the markets. Asian markets are in

positive territory. Share prices rose overnight.

Thank you for investing your time with us, goodbye for now.

You are watching BBC News. I'm Adnan Nawaz. The top stories this hour.

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