:00:15. > :00:22.The tumbling price of col hits Asia's largest commodities trader
:00:23. > :00:26.hard. -- coal. It report its first loss in two decades.
:00:27. > :00:38.And Australia and Japan dominate the latest list of the most liveable
:00:39. > :00:47.cities. Welcome to Asia Business Report. Asia's largest commodities
:00:48. > :00:59.trader Global Group has posted its first loss in nearly two decades.
:01:00. > :01:04.The collapsing call price led to it issuing a statement, saying it
:01:05. > :01:12.expected loss of $1.2 million -- 1.2 billion dollars. Share prices also
:01:13. > :01:20.dropped by 70%. I asked how much of a concern this was. We need to look
:01:21. > :01:25.at it in the context of what commodity traders are. Commodity
:01:26. > :01:33.traders such as Noble are leaders. They are like DHL or FedEx.
:01:34. > :01:36.match buyers and sellers. Playing the role of intermediaries. In doing
:01:37. > :01:41.so they take on a tremendously large amount of risk. Many carry a large
:01:42. > :01:46.amount of infantry on their books and this makes them vulnerable to
:01:47. > :01:49.the ups and downs of commodity prices and that's exactly what Noble
:01:50. > :01:58.is facing at this point. As you say, commodity traders have had to deal
:01:59. > :02:02.with these things. Noble was accused of various things last year,
:02:03. > :02:08.controversial accounting scandals, over inflating assets, how much will
:02:09. > :02:15.the slide in this 4G be blamed on that? The stock has fallen very
:02:16. > :02:19.sharply in value. We need to focus on the company's cash flow
:02:20. > :02:24.generation. This is a factor we need to look at for a number of
:02:25. > :02:28.companies, not just Noble. Many companies in this industry need to
:02:29. > :02:34.generate cash to generate confidence from the investors and it is that
:02:35. > :02:37.factory that we need to focus on intensely as they announce results
:02:38. > :02:44.this evening. You talk about the share price, a huge fall in the past
:02:45. > :02:48.year. Part of this as it also became a target for short sellers. How much
:02:49. > :02:53.do you think the share price will ever recover from this? When a
:02:54. > :03:00.company has fallen to 30% of its book value it is often the case that
:03:01. > :03:13.investors can see value, rather we can see a long-term perspective in
:03:14. > :03:16.this. You talked earlier about generating cash. How was the company
:03:17. > :03:22.going to do this with all the problems it has had, and also given
:03:23. > :03:25.the climate talks and to say we need to move away from coal fuelled power
:03:26. > :03:33.generation? This is something Noble does a lot of. What do you see this
:03:34. > :03:38.company heading for? The aversion towards fossil fuels has much more
:03:39. > :03:42.resonance when prices are at an elevated level. When they are
:03:43. > :03:46.depressed it is difficult for people to look for cheaper, cleaner
:03:47. > :03:54.alternatives, so the clean energy lobby would be under pressure in
:03:55. > :03:57.this price environment. In other news, the International Monetary
:03:58. > :04:03.Fund has warned that the world economy is highly vulnerable and
:04:04. > :04:07.they are calling for new mechanisms to protect the most vulnerable
:04:08. > :04:13.countries. The report ahead of the Shanghai G20 meeting later this week
:04:14. > :04:19.said there should be co-ordinated programme as world growth slows. The
:04:20. > :04:25.oil price crash and the geopolitical conflicts on the" those.
:04:26. > :04:34.The Crown resort has seen profits fall. -- contributing factors. The
:04:35. > :04:40.firm, part owned by billionaire James Packer, posted a net profit of
:04:41. > :04:47.148 million US. Some of India's best-known tech
:04:48. > :04:50.entrepreneurs have been meeting with start-ups and potential investors in
:04:51. > :04:54.Bangalore this week. It was the first event running India by the
:04:55. > :04:57.organisers of the summit, believed by many to be the biggest and most
:04:58. > :05:13.influential gathering of start-ups in the world. From virtual reality
:05:14. > :05:17.to robots of every kind, this is heaven for a technology enthusiast
:05:18. > :05:23.and modelled on one of Europe's largest technology conferences. It
:05:24. > :05:28.has been one of the biggest gatherings of entrepreneurs and
:05:29. > :05:32.investors that India has ever seen. India's banking on new businesses
:05:33. > :05:39.like this to boost the economy and create many more jobs and it seems
:05:40. > :05:44.to be working. Last year over 4000 start-ups were registered. That's a
:05:45. > :05:49.40% on 2014, creating an estimated 80,000 jobs. We started off with
:05:50. > :05:57.something simple... Kevin is one that entrepreneur. His messaging has
:05:58. > :06:01.now got over 1 million users. -- messaging app. But it has it isn't
:06:02. > :06:05.an easy country to find success. It is important to solve a problem. A
:06:06. > :06:13.lot of people don't realise that India changes all the time, which
:06:14. > :06:17.means you have to modify the product as the users grow because India is
:06:18. > :06:21.very diverse. The potential rewards mean plenty are prepared to give it
:06:22. > :06:29.a go. But while there's lots of Torquay, to events like this -- lots
:06:30. > :06:32.of talk here, is it really significant? It is a good chance to
:06:33. > :06:37.meet different investors from all over the world, and that doesn't
:06:38. > :06:41.happen every day. Usually you have to get on a plane and fly to other
:06:42. > :06:44.parts of the world. This is an opportunity to meet all of the
:06:45. > :06:49.people who have flown into India for this conference. Many Indian
:06:50. > :06:52.entrepreneurs complain that rules around tax and investment mean they
:06:53. > :06:58.have to base themselves abroad to get their idea of the ground. But
:06:59. > :07:02.investors pumped in more than $9 billion into start-ups last year
:07:03. > :07:07.and, with no shortage of engineers and tech talent, most expect
:07:08. > :07:15.India's reputation as a fast-growing start-up hub to continue.
:07:16. > :07:22.You've probably heard it before and the of course there's proof again to
:07:23. > :07:33.say that Singapore is the region's most liveable city. Or -- Osaka
:07:34. > :07:42.comes in second. It is all published by a company online. I spoke with
:07:43. > :07:46.the Asia regional director of and started by asking what sort of
:07:47. > :07:50.criteria they used for the rankings. We look at all factors which we
:07:51. > :07:53.think have an impact on a person's day-to-day lifestyle. On the one
:07:54. > :07:58.hand that could be the quality and availability of things that you
:07:59. > :08:03.might buy in supermarkets, all the way through to factors such as
:08:04. > :08:06.quality of medical infrastructure, air pollution levels and all the way
:08:07. > :08:12.through the crime rate and social political tensions. You mention air
:08:13. > :08:19.pollution. That's been a big factor, especially as it seems to be
:08:20. > :08:23.concentrated among Asian cities. What are the health risks of living
:08:24. > :08:28.in the cities? Air pollution is a big issue and it has been... It was
:08:29. > :08:32.during our research that we undertook last year. In spite of the
:08:33. > :08:40.fact that Singapore remains the most liveable location in these rankings,
:08:41. > :08:45.we did see that air pollution effect locations like Singapore, Malaysia,
:08:46. > :08:48.Indonesia, so on and so forth. And Asia is actually home to some of the
:08:49. > :08:54.locations with the highest level of air pollution, especially China,
:08:55. > :08:57.India as well, even Hong Kong. So that does have an impact and that's
:08:58. > :09:02.one of the reasons why Hong Kong, for example, in spite of the fact
:09:03. > :09:07.that it is one of the most liveable locations, still ranks very low
:09:08. > :09:18.because of the impact of air pollution. That is fascinating. That
:09:19. > :09:23.is take a look at a lot of Southeast Asian cities. Islamabad, Pakistan,
:09:24. > :09:29.they rank lower than North Korea's Pyongyang. Why? The main reason is
:09:30. > :09:34.all of these cities might score poorly in terms of factors such as
:09:35. > :09:42.infrastructure levels, social political tensions and so on. But
:09:43. > :09:46.the main differentiator, which causes places like Pakistan to be
:09:47. > :09:52.lower than Pyongyang is that crime rates are higher. That's the main
:09:53. > :09:56.issue. Let's have a look at the markets and what they're doing in
:09:57. > :10:02.Asia. It has been a fairly cautious start. We are seeing gains in Japan
:10:03. > :10:07.with the Nikkei. There is a slightly weaker yen against the US dollar and
:10:08. > :10:11.that is helping exporters. There's also a fragile recovery in oil
:10:12. > :10:16.prices. Investors are watching that very closely. The Hang Seng has
:10:17. > :10:22.opened flat. A lot of them taking cues from the US, where we saw Mark
:10:23. > :10:28.Rutte is turning around. They actually saw gains. -- where
:10:29. > :10:32.markets. Australia is a tad lower, despite the slight recovery in the
:10:33. > :10:37.oil prices and commodity stocks are being helped by that. That's it for
:10:38. > :10:49.this edition of Asia Business Report. Thanks for watching.
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