01/05/2013 World Business Report

violence is seen. More slums were attacked by Buddhist mobs in a town

near Rangoon. -- Muslims. Now for the latest financial news

with World Business Report. It's the first big-ticket item in

Greece's privatisation programme - the profitable gambling firm OPAP.

But without a last-minute deal today the sale could collapse.

We get a status update from Facebook. The world's largest

social network will reveal how profitable it is and how it's

squeezing more money out of its users on the move.

Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the

programme, more evidence to show China's manufacturing sector is

slowing down. We'll have the latest from our team in Singapore.

Privatisation is key to Greece getting back on its financial feet.

But the sale of the profitable gambling firm OPAP - the first big

ticket item on offer - has been riddled with problems. Investors

from the only suitor for OPAP have been meeting to discuss an improved

11th-hour offer. Athens has given Czech-Greek investment fund Emma

Delta until 1100 GMT to increase its bid of 622 million euros.

That's around $815 million. For that price the buyer gets a 33%

stake in Greece's most profitable firm. And for the Greek government

the sale marks the start of its all-important privatisation

programme. With the economy in its sixth year of recession, Greece

needs to wrap up the sale to show it is finally making good on long-

promised efforts to sell off state assets and cut debt, as demanded

With me is Kathleen Brooks, Research Director at forex.com.

While weather not many bidders for the company? It is profitable. It

is their lottery company which is often seen as cash cows. Firstly,

there are tax on gaming companies' profits. It is worked up to 30% by

the Greek government. That has put people off. It is not like tax

increases are going to go away any time soon in Greece. An American

company was a bidder. They were put off by the fact they wanted a few

conditions attached to the purchase of the company. The Greek

government would not allow it. They have been a couple of things that

have made it slightly less attractive than it looks on paper.

Today, will find out if they succeed or not. It is important for

the government this does not a fail. In terms of the privatisation

programme led by this agency in charge, how is it going in general?

The fact it has been in place since 2011 and was meant to finish up in

2015, the fact we are halfway through and only just getting a

sale, and may not even get a sale, suggest that this is what we are

used to increase. These happen at the last minute. -- in Greece.

Promises have been made to the Tricker and European officials to

raise cash domestically. They have not done it. It is not on track. If

they want to raise money through privatisation by 2015, there have

to extend that deadline. How is Greece doing? If they do not

succeed in sales by foreign buyers, will they get in trouble again

financially? It will make it harder to get their next fund. They need

to sell these state assets to get hold of future finances otherwise

they will have to be declared bankrupt. Thank you.

The deadline is at 11am today. The With over a billion users worldwide

there is no doubt it's the number one social media company. Facebook

will be giving us its status update later when it reveals how much

money it's made in the first three months of this year. All eyes will

be on its mobile advertising business - how well the company is

able to make money from people using Facebook while on the move.

It roughly doubled in the last quarter. Can Facebook maintain that

momentum? From New York, Samira Hussain reports.

One Mark Zuckerberg and his legion of friends were all smiles, taking

the social networking site public. But one year later, a lot has

changed. How we are all Sherrin is changing. Increasingly, more people

are using Facebook on one of these. One year ago, Facebook had very

little advertising come in from mobile devices. Now it accounts for

almost one quarter of its revenues. The company is facing stiff

competition for those dollars. Google is the elephant in the room.

It is the big player. Coup will account for at least 50% or more of

the noble art market in the US. -- Facebook has a good idea of what

its users like and dislike. That means highly targeted

advertisements, something online marketers love. Although my ball

and so generate less money, they are the key to Facebook's future. -

- mobile advertisements. They are after a younger users. The worry is

that they might be losing interest. Facebook has been long around for a

long time compared to some companies like Instagram. What is

going to be cool is what is going to be new. Facebook thinks about

what its users are trying to do and adapting itself to do that. They

have been copying a lot of message in apse -- apps. Crime to make

their products as relevant as possible. Facebook is not

answerable to investors. Remaining both popular and lucrative is a

tight balancing act for just about any friend.

The manufacturing sector in China continues to slow. Fill us in on

the data for the month of April. That is right. We have to the

official purchasing index up this morning. What does it mean? A

reading above 50 does indicate the manufacturing sector has still

expanded but nevertheless economists have been expecting

slightly stronger figures than this. The Chinese market is closed for

public holiday. Other Asian markets have been trading bloc because of

this disappointing figure, especially because it follows

growth figures which came in unexpected. The Chinese economy

expanded just under 8%. It had double digits for many years until

the recent slowdown kick in. The demand for Chinese box remains

quite weak, especially in the US and Europe. -- products. They have

been trying to rebalance the economy by relying less on

manufacturing, by boosting domestic consumption. As the new leadership

tries to curb lavish official spending, that is a tricky task for

In other news, the Congress in Mexico has approved a major reform

of the country's telecommunications industry - a move that could

challenge the business empire of the world's richest man, Carlos

Slim. The shake-up aims to improve competition in a market currently

dominated by Mr Slim's America Movil and Latin America's biggest

television network, Televisa. In an unusual Kodak moment, Eastman

Kodak says it expects to emerge from bankruptcy, as soon as July,

as a commercial imaging business under the control of its creditors.

The photography pioneer launched its first camera in 1888 and grew

to dominate the market for photographic film, but it was too

late to adapt to the digital challenge and sales plummeted in