20/02/2017 Asia Business Report

The American food giant Kraft Heinz walks away from its proposed merger

deal with Unilever. And a nose for talent. India's perfume industry on

the unique hiring push. Welcome to Asia Business Report. Now, the

biggest potential merger deal in corporate history is now not

happening, and that is after the American food giant Kraft Heinz said

it was dropping its bid to buy rival Unilever. The Anglo Dutch company

which makes marmite, Lipton tea and Dove soap rejected a bid from Kraft

Heinz on Friday. Kraft Heinz has said it has amicably agreed to scrap

the plan. For more, here is our business reporter. I calculate that

within 55 hours of the bid being submitted it has been withdrawn

entirely and this will have brought together some major global brands

that you and I know in our households such as Philadelphia and

Kraft Heinz beings. It would have brought together Coleman 's mustard

and Magnum ice cream. It would have made Unilever a huge player but it

is no more. And what has happened is basically it has become very clear

that it was never going to work, and that Kraft Heinz would have to

launch a hostile takeover bid for Unilever, which would have cost it

an awful lot more money than it was prepared to pay, and it would not

have made the deal worthwhile. Also it wouldn't have been a friendly and

amicable divorce which we read about today, because there are thousands

of people working for Unilever at the moment who are breathing a sigh

of relief because Kraft Heinz is controlled by a Brazilian outfits

called 3G, and they have a deserved history for cost cutting, taking

sides to factories and jobs at the companies they take over. -- taking

a scythe. They would have decided that many areas had to go. In other

business news, Samsung's group chief JY Lee was questioned by prosecutors

for two days in a row over the weekend after being arrested on

bribery charges in connection with an investigation into South Korea's

President Park. The questioning focused on allegations JY Lee gave

$36 million worth of rights to a friend of the President, in exchange

for backing a restructure at Samsung companies. Samsung has denied all

the allegations. Chinese coal futures are rising after the nation

stopped coal imports from North Korea. It is a move which

effectively cuts the secretive regime's exports in half. The ban

will remain in place until the end of the year, in a bid to ramp up the

pressure on John Yang after its missiles test last weekend. --

Pyongyang. It rejected a shipment of North Korean coal, the country's

biggest export. And a loan from the International Monetary Fund is aimed

at bailing out the commodity reliant economy which has been vulnerable to

highly variable prices, helping Mongolia avoid missing a $580

million debt repayment due next month. Once a national icon, it is

now up for sale. The bidding process is under way for Malaysia's

automaker Proton. The Chinese company could emerge as the top

suitor for 51% stake. Proton was established 1983 but by the late

1990s it was losing market share at home and abroad due to poor

production quality. I asked an audit analyst if the takeover would be a

good one. As the Chinese domestic market slows down we are going from

6% growth in 2016 to probably around 2% growth, Chinese automakers are

looking abroad for growth, and Southeast Asia, which is still a

very fast growing market, the Asean ten countries are a fast-growing

market and companies like this are interested in trying to figure out

how to enter that market. An acquisition which is being

contemplated could be that route. Some reports suggesting that the

Peugeot parent PSA might make a benefit, it is one of several

contenders looking at trying to acquire Proton. How do you compare

these various potential marriage is? They are quite different. Geely is a

much smaller and one could say much nimbler automaker or competitor, and

they are very aggressive in terms of coming up with an innovative way to

enter markets. Take their acquisition of Volvo as an example.

This was a big surprise in 2010, when they purchased that European

automaker, in order to gain technologies. Their strategy here

could be to use Proton as a platform for export growth to other

south-east Asian countries. Very quickly, Geely was famous for having

bought out Volvo's car business, so how long will this integration take

if indeed this marriage does happen? Proton doesn't really produce very

many cars today, fewer than 100,000, so I think it might take two to

three years for Geely the digests, and to build a platform for growth

in Proton Malaysia as well as other parts of Southeast Asia. It is a

brand-new trading week, but there will be a lack of direction somewhat

early this week due to a market holiday over in the US. Here in

Asia, all eyes will be on a number of earnings due from global

corporate giants such as mining firm BHP Billiton and HSBC. A market

strategist, Michael McCarthy, explained how the earnings reports

could affect regional markets. Both very important bellwethers for the

market, focusing on BHP we know there has been a big improvement in

the underlying commodity prices, copper, oil, coal, iron ore, all

doing better in comparison to the big sell-off we saw at the beginning

of 2016. We have seen production reports and we know the realised

prices so the numbers themselves are pretty straightforward. We think BHP

will report 62 cents per share but the key will be what they will do

with the money that is flowing into their accounts from those improved

commodity prices. And shareholders in particular will be looking for

announcements around capital initiatives and perhaps an improved

dividend return. India has among the largest number of blind people in

the world. More than 5 million, according to government numbers. The

country has few employment opportunities for them, but now a

private firm is training blind people to work in perfume and

fragrance companies using their sense of smell. Our correspondent

reports from Mumbai. This man became blind at the age of three due to a

smallpox infection. Like most visually impaired people in India,

finding work has always been a struggle for him. One year ago, he

got a job with a company that makes fragrances. His role, to ensure the

aromas that go into the perfumes are pure, I smelling them. TRANSLATION:

I feel proud. I earn my own money, and because of that my children are

progressing. I am living with dignity, and people respect me at my

workplace. You can identify that note? It is in a class like this one

that Ravi Vanniyar was trained. The course was started three years ago

by a private company which found that people who can't see at a

keener sense of smell than the general population. In India there

are laws that mandate that a small percentage of government jobs should

be reserved for people with disabilities. But they are often

difficult to get, and there is not enough of them. That is why,

perhaps, the solution lies with the private sector, and new

opportunities like this one that are being created. Initially, Ravi

Vanniyar's employer hired individuals like him for corporate

charity but the company now said it also makes good sense. Still,

finding suitable jobs for all these students has been tough. Literally

we have to go door-to-door and ask the industry to kind of employ them.

They wonder how they are going to be getting to work, what kind of

support they need to give, what the surroundings are going to be like,

how they are going to adjust to other people. Ravi has a long

commute to work on public transport that is not very easy for him to

use. But the promise of a salary at the end of each month is enough to

make him go the distance. And a lot more coverage of this issue on BBC

.com/ disability, and on Twitter. A quick look at the markets, as I

mentioned a holiday in the US, it is Presidents Day. In Asia, markets not

looking too good. In Japan, shares are up 2% on a report that Japanese

companies Softbank would give up control of Sprint if the merger took

place. And Toshiba shares are rebounding somewhat today, up 3%

after sharp falls on Friday. That's it for this edition of Asia Business

Report. Thank you for