20/12/2016 Asia Business Report

Uber hits a roadblock in Taiwan. What does this mean for the future

of this ridesharing application in Asia and what has rocked the luxury

housing industry in the US? Good morning, Asia. Hello, world. Glad

you could join us for this Tuesday edition of Asia Business Report.

Uber is planning a new move after it was banned in Taiwan. This is not

the first time the firm has faced resistance from local governments.

From London to Jakarta taxi drivers have gone on strike saying that

Uber's business model is not safe and has unfair competition. It needs

to be signed into law. Here is a response from their regional

manager. We will cross that bridge when we get to it. At the moment we

are working very hard to educate and communicate with the president in

Taiwan to make sure she knows that more than a million people in Taiwan

have downloaded the Uber app. And they will be the ones who suffer if

Uber is not allowed. Is this not just a formality? It has already

been passed by the regulatory body and has been signed by the

president. Uber is something new. Because it is innovative we have

been in sticky spots all over the world. We are good at getting past.

We just want to sit down at the table with the Taiwanese government

to come up with new regulation to allow ridesharing applications. You

are right because you always push the envelope in terms of rules and

regulations. Uber's technology is new. It has never existed before the

Cosby smartphone wasn't around before. -- because the. We need to

work with the government to educate them about why new regulations are

required in Taiwan. If the president does not veto this law and it is

signed, does this mean we will not see Uber on the roads? You will

abide by the law? Like I said, we will cross that bridge when it

comes. What I can say is today more than 10,000 Taiwanese citizens rely

on Uber to make money. Whether it is mothers needing flexible work

because their children are at school or people who are caring for their

families at hospital, Uber provides flexible work. So we want to fight

like heck to make sure they can continue to make money from Uber.

Apart from Taiwan, you are in many countries, more than a dozen in the

Asia-Pacific region. Where are you profitable? We don't give out

information about profitability yet because we are still a privately

held company so I am not at discretion. But we are growing like

an weed across all of the Asia-Pacific. Clearly we have

something consumers love. Micheal from Uber in the Asia-Pacific. In

other business news making headlines in India, the boardroom battle is

over for now. The former Tata chairman had resigned from the board

of old Tata group listed companies. He has vowed to push for better

corporate governance. His resignation comes ahead of several

meetings at Qatar steel and Tata Motors to remove him from their

boards. -- Tata Steel. Christine Lagarde has been found guilty over

negligence over a huge compensation payment made eight years ago when

she was the French Finance Minister. Christine Lagarde always denied

wrongdoing. The court has decided not to hand down any punishment.

Thousands of passengers around the world for virgin could come to a

halt. Grounded workers are threatening industrial action

starting Friday in a dispute over pay. This comes ahead of the peak

travel season with Christmas and New Year's just around the corner. When

I spoke to the man who is their spokesman, I asked him how would

this impacts travellers around Asia? It would have a major impact. But

with British Airways, you are looking at 12- 15% of the workforce

looking to go on strike. Still, they could create inconvenience and

issues for the error line and the network. -- airline. That would

affect places like Japan where they have a joint operation with Japan

Airlines. The other one is Virgin. It is not an absolute strike but

they will follow the contract specifically and provide no

flexibility. That could create disruptions. Disruptions and

inconvenience. This is something like travellers that you and I don't

want. What are these airlines such as BA and Virgin Atlantic being

squeezed financially? It is a big struggle in the global aviation

industry to keep costs low. They are squeezed on the European side by

low-cost carriers like RyanAir who are good at keeping costss though.

The major costs for airlines is cabin crew. Fuel is an equal thing

for all airlines depending on their hedging. One area you can try to cut

cost is cabin crew. How are they trying to cut costs on terms of

cabin crew? Like mentioned, the Middle Eastern airlines are good at

adapting to this. Cutting things like benefits and allowances and the

amount of money you can actually earned working for the airline.

People like Emirates and others in the Asia-Pacific, their cabin crew

are paid less. That is the nature of that part of the world. So for

European and US carriers, it is difficult to manage pay expectations

of the crew. What about hedging on jet fuel costs? We have seen it come

down significantly in the past two years from $100 to 40- $50. It makes

it easy to make money as an airline on its own but everyone is

benefiting. Some carriers have good ability to make money from it but

others lose money from low cost oil. It affects everyone fairly evenly.

Greg from Flight Global. Chinese government researches say that the

yuan is expected to weaken another 3- 5% in 2017. That is on top of the

6.5% drop the sea. Combined with the restrictions of sending money

overseas, it could impact the US. We have asked a person that Chinese

wealth has that per cent of his business is the pillar it dipped

this year and the reason has been multifaceted. It has been quite

difficult. Recently we have had many deals that were not made because

they could not get the money out. Also, the Chinese economy took a hit

last year and this year as well. It is twofold. Was there any

nervousness in the market ahead of the US election? There was a lot of

nervousness ahead of the election. People were nervous about where we

were calling. And I think that made it questionable for people. --

going. The markets were slow prior to the election. It was interesting,

right after the election, many people moved forward from all over

the globe. Are there any signs about what a Donald Trump presidency will

mean for real estate? Donald Trump has something that will help in

benefiting the real estate market. He intends to lower taxation for the

wealthy which really does help in making wealthy people... They want

to continue to invest in high-level properties. And there will be a

trickle-down effect. Donald Trump is a real estate guru. That is

something special to him in his heart. And I think he will make sure

that real estate is very secure moving forward. Does the Great

Firewall of China have an impact? It is one of the challenges in dealing

with the Chinese market. That wall is difficult to break. So in

general, when you have international buyers, it is easy for them to

Google and do their own research. But with the Chinese we have to work

differently and we do a lot of phone conversations and e-mails and work

in a different manner to get beyond that. Aaron. He specialises in the

luxury real estate market. He was speaking to the BBC. And now for a

quick look at the markets. As you can see right now, a mixed bag for

the Asia-Pacific markets. Thin trading ahead of the Christmas

holiday season. This is after US stocks finished modestly higher

overnight. The NASDAQ composite index is continuing to be in

positive territory led by Disney following a strong opening weekend

performance of its latest Star Wars movie franchise, Rogue One. As for

the US dollar, crawling back into positive territory. It has improved

to its strongest in nearly a decade. Thank you so much for investing your

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