17/07/2014 Asia Business Report

of child abuse. Those are the headlines. Now on BBC

News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.

Australia scraps its divisive carbon tax on the country's biggest

polluters. South Korean and Japanese social messaging service Line plans

a multi` billion`dollar sale as it builds explosive growth at home and

abroad. Thank you for joining us. We start with news just in,

Australia's parliament voted to scrap the controversial carbon tax.

It is a major victory for Conservative PM Tony Abbott. It

creates uncertainty about how Australia will meet its carbon

reduction goal. For the latest, let's cross to Sydney. It has been a

long time coming with lots of infighting among politicians. This

will be welcome news for big business. Especially those hundreds

of Australian companies who have been forced to buy permits under the

carbon tax as part of the effort under the legislation to reduce

Australia's carbon foot on. The tax was finally axed in the upper house

after three attempts `` footprint. It was passed within the last hour

by 39 votes to 32. The government was helped by support from the

micro` parties and independents. Opposition from Labour and the

Brenes. In the past, Australia has set very ambitious carbon reduction

targets. How will it be that? `` Greens. `` Meet them? Tony Abbott,

promising to axe the tax, said the government remains environmentally

responsible. He said the direct action plan will do the job. This is

where taxpayers help companies voluntarily cut emissions, unlike

the carbon tax which forced them to cut the emissions under law. With

Australia scrapping the carbon tax, it will send signals to developing

countries like China and India. Australia is one of the highest per

capita emitters of greenhouse gas and supporters of the tax say that

the repeal of the tax is a tragic day for Australia and Australia's

environmental responsibilities. Ministers speaking in the Senate

earlier today stressed that Australia contributes about 1% of

global emissions and what it does is inconsequential and paired with the

big polluters. By that, the big polluters include China, the US and

the EU. Australia says that those regions and countries need to do

more before smaller players like Australia should follow suit. Thank

you. In technology, South Korean and Japanese mobile messaging service,

Line, announces plans for a public offering in New York, Tokyo, or

possibly both. Some suggest 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? The head of the US Federal Reserve,

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 look at the listing

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

$1 billion of revenue. It has a major footprint in Asia. If you look

at all the analyst reports, the revenue from all of these apps is

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

optimistic about social media applications, but 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 these 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 sit in US and

Europe. Line is looking to IPO to help them without. `` with that.

Will it ever go the same way as Line and go international? They will, and

they are doing that now. They have a huge marketing campaign across

Europe, 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. Time Warner

has rejected a takeover bid from 21st Century Fox. The proposal by

the firm owned by Rupert Murdoch was made last month and is estimated to

be worth $80 billion. Fox says it isn't in talks with Time Warner.

EBay has beat expectations with profits of $676 million. Shares in

the company were up by more than 1.5%. The Prophets report comes

after a challenging quarter after eBay said in May that 145 million

customer accounts might have been compromised `` profits. Apple has

agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit following claims it

colluded with publishers to fix the price of the books. The settlement

depends on Apple losing an appeal into a 2013 ruling that it violated

anti`trust laws overpricing `` ebooks. It found they orchestrated a

conspiracy with publishers to raise the prices. Apple denies 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. `` ebooks. Kindle Unlimited

would compete with Oyster's 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. In fact, 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. I have a lot of German riesling, 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 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 sellers 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 where the growth potential of wine being uncorked.

Before we go, a look at the markets. Stocks remain in positive territory.

This follows US equities rising overnight. Boosted by strong

corporate earnings. Australia at a four`month high. Those are the

regional markets. Thank you for investing your time with us. Goodbye

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