24/08/2016 Asia Business Report

The flying kangaroo takes off. Qantas posts record earnings

results. And clean your room. What is a chore to most people has turned

into a dream job for one lady from Shanghai. Good morning Asia, hello

world. Glad you could join us for this Thursday edition of Asia

Business Report. I am Rico Hizon. Australia's national carrier,

Qantas, has just posted record numbers. The national carrier saw

1.08 billion US dollars, that is nearly double last year's profit,

and for the first time in seven years that airline will pay a

dividend to shareholders. It is a huge turnaround from just a few

years ago when it posted record losses. He was a quick reminder of

its turbulent past few years -- here is a quick reminder.

For more on those record results I spoke with the editor-in-chief of

Airline Ratings .com. He joined us via webcam from Perth. They have had

a dramatic turnaround so is the sickening losses of a few years ago

and they have re- Jeet the whole airline with about 250 initiatives

which have come through to the bottom line -- rejigged. Permanent

savings of about $1.66 billion, plus of course they have hedged the fuel

the right way and have had a $640 million gain from that which they

have passed on in lower air fares and also passed on into the bottom

line as well. So they appear to have got the airline on the right flight

path, and increased the efficiency dramatically of the airline and got

rid of some of the legacy things that were dragging it down. So is it

fair to give full credit for these record numbers to chief executive

Alan Joyce? Look, I do believe it is. I mean, two or three years ago

the unions in Australia were calling for his head, and certainly the

airline was going through a lot of turbulence. At I think Alan would

say he was the messenger, the staff had suddenly believed the message.

He kept repeating that message of what they had to do, and slowly at

first and then with far greater momentum, the staff got on board to

the joyous message and turned their back on the union's hard-line --

Alan Joyce message. And all of a sudden when you have 20,000 or

30,000 people working for you and not against you, the transformation

is dramatic. And this I think we'll go down as one of those Harvard

textbook cases of how to turn an airline around. A Chinese real

estate and airline conglomerate expects to seal $2 billion worth of

deals in the US this year according to its chairman. China's richest man

says his next target would be a major movie studio. He says the goal

is to bring the capability to China. TRANSLATION: Only six are real

global film companies, while the rest are not so if we are to build a

real movie empire this is a necessary step. There are two main

industries we are interested in, entertainment and athletics. To

merge and acquire and entertainment and athletics company are our main

objectives. If the target company fits our appetite there is no limit

to the Budget. Most of the money invested in China and even the

global film in industry is silly money. Only a little bit is smart

money. When investors see the industry getting hot they all swarm

around it. Wang Jianlin. The mining industry has been in a bit of a

slump this year due to slowing demand from China. BHP Billiton just

posted a big loss of more than $6 million, but it could be a different

story for their Swiss rival Glenn Corps. The commodities market has

business going beyond mining and metals -- Glencore. Earlier I spoke

with David Lennox, joining us via webcam from Sydney. With profit

between zero and 400 million, that compares the consensus of 430

million and also a half-year result of 800 million for 2015. So overall

we do expect to see the direct mining operations actually

contributing zero results, and the agribusiness will, we believe, be

relatively profitable. These numbers, though, could have been

padded if Glencore had been able to unload over the past year its copper

mine asset in New South Wales and its goldmine in Kazakhstan.

Unfortunately they have been having a difficult time finding buyers.

Look, they have. Gold is actually a little bit of a surprise given that

we have seen that increase in the gold price. We thought that may have

attracted a buyer to that particular goldmine and of course, copper side

the price has really not done a lot. And we would expect to find it a bit

harder to come by. Overall, with those sales not being completed

inside the half we do expect to see the company's balance sheet remained

somewhat constrained through the reporting of results. David Lennox

in Sydney. Being a professional home organiser might not seem like the

most exciting job, but this woman describes her work is beautiful. She

left behind her top job as a lawyer in Shanghai to follow her dreams of

cleaning up people's homes, ridding them of hoarding tendencies and

helping them to create a calm and tranquil place. She tells us why at

home organising is her dream job. TRANSLATION: Home organising is

about balancing the relationship between people, things, and space.

It is about helping clients categorise their belongings, to give

them a clear mind and improve their quality of life. One day I walked

past my landlord's room. It was so messy that I wanted to jump in and

get his room cleaned right away. The quality of our life has improved a

lot over the years but for many their living space is still a mess.

So that is why I decided to become a home organiser. The Chinese are very

nostalgic. We collect all kinds of things. Stuff people love to record

our clothes which haven't been warned for a long time and many

unexpected things such as tea -- hoard are clothes. We advocate

thriftiness and many of us love to give gifts, which people find hard

to throw away or recycled. I think hoarding and collecting are two

different things. Hoarding his subconscious. -- is subconscious.

You don't consider the value of the things you collect, it is usually

the result of feeling insecure. Many families like having big furniture.

Even when their homes are small. Often their houses become very

cramped. Before they come to realise that the value of space is higher

than the value of things. My job is to inspire people to tidy up. My

goal is to gather all home organiser is in China and start a real

industry here, that involves more people who are passionate. A very

interesting dream job there. And before we go, here is a look now at

the regional markets and Asia is currently getting a lift. As you can

see the Nikkei 225 up by 140 points and the All Ordinaries gaining about

seven points this hour, this is after the US posted modest gains

overnight led by the home building sector following a big jump in the

sales of new homes last month. The Dow gained 18 point and the NASDAQ

in positive territory by 15.5 points. Let's have a quick look at

the currency markets, and the dollar sliding against the Japanese yen as

investors await a key speech on Friday at the Fed chairman, Janet

Yellen. The dollar yen rate at 100.40 five. Thank you for investing

your time with us. I am Rico Hizon. Sport Today is up next.