:00:00. > :00:00.baby are devastated after a High Court decided doctors can withdraw
:00:00. > :00:07.their son's life-support. I'll be back later but first, here's
:00:08. > :00:17.Sharanjit Leyl with Asia Business Report.
:00:18. > :00:25.Toshiba's troubles. The Japanese firm risks a de-listing after
:00:26. > :00:30.risking earnings without a sign of from auditors. And we find out what
:00:31. > :00:40.China's latest inflation figures tell us about the country's economy.
:00:41. > :00:45.Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report, I'm Sharanjit Leyl.
:00:46. > :00:50.Toshiba's shares are down more than 2% at the start of trade in Tokyo
:00:51. > :00:54.this morning, the conglomerate from Japan could face delisting from the
:00:55. > :00:59.stock exchange after it listed results without the endorsement of
:01:00. > :01:02.an auditor. It's unprecedented for a major Japanese firm, they are going
:01:03. > :01:08.to sell their crown jewels, the chip business, to offset huge losses from
:01:09. > :01:12.its nuclear division in the US Westinghouse. Earlier I spoke to
:01:13. > :01:16.Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and asked him about the likelihood of a
:01:17. > :01:21.de-listing. Every stock exchange around the world has rules over what
:01:22. > :01:26.companies have to do to qualify too keep their stocks listed, and one of
:01:27. > :01:31.those is normally that you have to file timely results, timely reports,
:01:32. > :01:35.financial reports, and they have to be audited by an auditing company
:01:36. > :01:42.and signed off by that company. Clearly what we said yesterday that
:01:43. > :01:46.saw yesterday is PwC, Toshiba's auditors, have refused to sign off
:01:47. > :01:49.on those results and the Tokyo stock exchange will have to make a
:01:50. > :01:55.decision, does that mean Toshiba is not in compliance with its own
:01:56. > :01:58.regulations and if so it will be forced to delist the company. I
:01:59. > :02:04.suspect it will be reluctant to do so but then there's the credibility
:02:05. > :02:10.of the Tokyo stock market, it is potentially at stake here as well.
:02:11. > :02:15.Rupert, what happens next to this giant conglomerate? We know it's a
:02:16. > :02:20.century-old company, founded in 1875, will Toshiba be allowed to
:02:21. > :02:24.fail and how might this failure be a lesson to other Japanese stalwarts?
:02:25. > :02:27.I don't think the Japanese government wants Toshiba to fail but
:02:28. > :02:31.at the moment there's no rescue package, so it looks likely some
:02:32. > :02:35.sort of deal will be done to sell off chunks of the company but the
:02:36. > :02:38.problem again for the Japanese government and Toshiba, at the
:02:39. > :02:46.moment only foreign companies are coming forward. Word we understand a
:02:47. > :02:49.Taiwanese company is prepared to offer well over the market rate for
:02:50. > :02:53.Toshiba's memory chip business but there are political issues around
:02:54. > :02:57.selling such a crown jewels, as you called it, of Toshiba to a foreign
:02:58. > :03:01.company. There are political considerations and the Japanese
:03:02. > :03:05.government would clearly like to keep that company or all of
:03:06. > :03:11.Toshiba's assets in Japanese hands if they can. What happens next to
:03:12. > :03:16.the company? As you say, it will be broken up into bits, the prized
:03:17. > :03:23.assets being sold off, but beyond that, can it continue to survive in
:03:24. > :03:27.what we know today, Toshiba, the big giant conglomerate? It can certainly
:03:28. > :03:31.survive, it can survive de-listing, other companies have done so. It
:03:32. > :03:36.would be a major blow, a sort of moral blow to the company, everybody
:03:37. > :03:40.would frown upon a de-listing, certainly in the financial markets
:03:41. > :03:44.and the financial industry, it could delist and then go through a deal to
:03:45. > :03:49.sell off various bits of the company and raise enough cash to cover its
:03:50. > :03:56.huge debts, especially in its North American division. It will have to
:03:57. > :03:59.go through the bankruptcy and of Westinghouse in North America and it
:04:00. > :04:03.could re-emerge a smaller but leaner company and go back to basically
:04:04. > :04:07.it's all business of construction, that is the core business that
:04:08. > :04:11.Toshiba used to do. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. Another
:04:12. > :04:17.high-level staff departure at Uber. The company's head of communications
:04:18. > :04:21.has left and no reason was given for her exit but she's the fourth
:04:22. > :04:25.high-level executive to leave the company recently. Last month Uber's
:04:26. > :04:31.president left citing the culture of the company... Uber's reputation
:04:32. > :04:36.took a hit after video emerged of the chief executive swearing at a
:04:37. > :04:41.driver as well as allegations of sexual harassment. More on that
:04:42. > :04:47.story and other corporate news on our website.
:04:48. > :04:51.Not so long ago customers who were unhappy with the company's service
:04:52. > :04:56.would call up and complain or even write a grumpy letter, but in the
:04:57. > :05:02.digital age of you have questions or need help with an order so companies
:05:03. > :05:06.are finding new ways to help you reach out to them. We caught up with
:05:07. > :05:10.the Chief Executive of a software company that supplies services like
:05:11. > :05:24.live online chat systems, Zendesk. We see some new trends here that we
:05:25. > :05:28.don't see anywhere else in the world, we can see how these trends
:05:29. > :05:32.are coming through the rest of the world, how consumers are embracing
:05:33. > :05:36.mobile and new messaging paradigms and moving more of their brand
:05:37. > :05:40.interactions to these new channels and devices. We're curious about
:05:41. > :05:42.them and interested in how that can help our products and help customers
:05:43. > :05:56.elsewhere in the world. The voice of the customer has never
:05:57. > :06:02.been louder than it is today and because of all the social media, any
:06:03. > :06:06.consumer can reach the entire world through social media and the
:06:07. > :06:09.Internet, the customer has so much power both in terms of exposing
:06:10. > :06:14.companies and hurting their brands if they want to. So for businesses
:06:15. > :06:19.it's really about embracing those channels and figuring out the pot
:06:20. > :06:20.proper way of engaging in those channels and having meaningful
:06:21. > :06:29.conversations with their customers. Technologies like artificial
:06:30. > :06:33.intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, these kinds of things,
:06:34. > :06:38.helps us build better tools that help customers serve themselves
:06:39. > :06:42.better. So we see it as a very natural revolution of service but
:06:43. > :06:44.also that we have quality customer service that can help when the
:06:45. > :06:57.automated experience doesn't work. Now, speaking of the importance of
:06:58. > :07:00.good customer service, shares of United Continental, the parent
:07:01. > :07:06.company of United Airlines, fell by as much as 4% in US trading before
:07:07. > :07:11.recovering to close lower than 1%, the selloff wiped off $255 million
:07:12. > :07:15.from the market value of the company and investors dumped on the stock
:07:16. > :07:20.after this video emerged showing airport officials dragging of a
:07:21. > :07:24.passenger on one of United's US flights. The video has gone viral
:07:25. > :07:29.and has been watched hundreds of millions of times around the world
:07:30. > :07:34.and United's chief executive had to issue another apology saying he was
:07:35. > :07:38.sorry and the airline would fix it. He had initially said the staff were
:07:39. > :07:46.following established procedures. In other news, China's inflation
:07:47. > :07:53.figures are out later this hour and the CPI grew fast last month. They
:07:54. > :07:57.are targeting 3% this year but is that a realistic target? Here's the
:07:58. > :08:02.view of a man who tracks the Chinese economy and he spoke to me earlier.
:08:03. > :08:09.In China they have already set a target, this year. To why isn't
:08:10. > :08:16.good, too low isn't good, but of course it is a bit on the low side
:08:17. > :08:21.-- to why. 2% is probably around best for China. At the moment I
:08:22. > :08:27.would say it's not easy to achieve 2% because of food prices, food
:08:28. > :08:32.prices always account for a big chunk of China's's CPI. At the
:08:33. > :08:37.moment so far food prices have been fairly low, that's why it isn't easy
:08:38. > :08:41.for China to reach 2% this year. Looking away from that, let's look
:08:42. > :08:46.at some of the policies the Chinese government took this year, capital
:08:47. > :08:52.controls, limiting capital flowing out of the country, what impact has
:08:53. > :08:58.that had? I know about that and the impact it has had. In terms of the
:08:59. > :09:02.impact on the real economy, we have heard from companies who have had
:09:03. > :09:06.some trouble expanding overseas. Right now there's a lot of scrutiny
:09:07. > :09:12.in terms of investigation and motivation behind that. The money
:09:13. > :09:17.has been a distraction. But that's the negative side. On the positive
:09:18. > :09:21.side we are seeing a more balanced flow for China because in the past
:09:22. > :09:25.few years we have been worried about this but after the tightening
:09:26. > :09:32.measures we are seeing more balanced flow is, that is good for everyone.
:09:33. > :09:37.In terms of balance, the output, authorities are projecting 6.5%
:09:38. > :09:41.growth this year. What impact will that slower growth in China have on
:09:42. > :09:47.many of its trading partners in Asia who count on it as a major trading
:09:48. > :09:51.partner? I would say 6.5% isn't a bad number for China given China is
:09:52. > :09:58.such a huge economy, after 30 years of record growth, the size of the
:09:59. > :10:03.Chinese economy is huge so 6.5% is based on a high base already. So in
:10:04. > :10:06.terms of the impact on the region, I don't see significant impact as long
:10:07. > :10:11.as China can keep their growth around 6.5%.
:10:12. > :10:16.Let's have a look at the markets before we go because as you can see,
:10:17. > :10:21.the Nikkei is down 1% already at the get go. Those Toshiba shares have
:10:22. > :10:26.been going in and out of positive territory right now, they are up
:10:27. > :10:30.around 0.5% at the moment, a lot of conflicting talk about where the
:10:31. > :10:34.company is headed. That's it for this edition of Asia Business
:10:35. > :10:40.Report. I'm Sharanjit Leyl. Thanks for joining us.
:10:41. > :10:46.You're watching BBC News. The headlines: The US Secretary of State
:10:47. > :10:47.Rex Tillerson is in Moscow trying