10/08/2017

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:00:00. > :00:16.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.

:00:17. > :00:23.A deadline looms for Toshiba to report its annual results. It has

:00:24. > :00:27.until today to get an to sign it off. Silicon Valley setting an

:00:28. > :00:29.example when it comes to paid maternity leave in America but will

:00:30. > :00:41.the rest of the country Good morning, Asia, hello, world.

:00:42. > :00:45.It's Thursday and glad you could join us for this edition of Asia

:00:46. > :00:49.Business Report, I'm Rico Hizon and we begin with Japan's troubled

:00:50. > :00:54.electronics giant Toshiba and today is the deadline for the company to

:00:55. > :01:00.report its audited results for the past fiscal year. Toshiba has missed

:01:01. > :01:04.the deadline several times and some investors are now questioning its

:01:05. > :01:10.very survival. For the latest let's go over to Mariko Oi, our business

:01:11. > :01:14.editor, a lot of confusion about these Toshiba results, they can't

:01:15. > :01:20.seem to reconcile where they are at. Indeed. The delay has been caused

:01:21. > :01:24.because of the disagreement between the auditor and Toshiba, but it

:01:25. > :01:28.looks like at least the auditor is giving a partial approval so that

:01:29. > :01:33.the company can report its results later today. Let's remind you of how

:01:34. > :01:38.we actually got here, because it actually all started over a decade

:01:39. > :01:42.ago when Toshiba bought US nuclear company Westinghouse. We didn't hear

:01:43. > :01:47.much about it until of course in March 2011 the massive tsunami

:01:48. > :01:51.struck a nuclear power plant in Fukushima causing a huge disaster

:01:52. > :01:55.and that made it obviously a lot harder for companies to sell nuclear

:01:56. > :02:00.energy. Then again we didn't really hear from them until two years ago

:02:01. > :02:04.when we found out Toshiba has been inflating profits over the last

:02:05. > :02:09.seven years. Just as the company was starting to recover from that

:02:10. > :02:12.accounting scandal in December last year, we heard Westinghouse, the US

:02:13. > :02:17.nuclear company, has been losing quite a lot of money. We didn't know

:02:18. > :02:20.how much but the number kept ballooning and that's basically why

:02:21. > :02:27.the company hasn't been able to report its results. It started

:02:28. > :02:31.trying to sell the chips business, which is the only profitable unit,

:02:32. > :02:37.but it's facing legal challenges from its US partner. Because of that

:02:38. > :02:41.we saw the company's chairman resign and then Westinghouse filing for

:02:42. > :02:46.bankruptcy as well. Earlier this month we saw shares in Toshiba being

:02:47. > :02:50.demoted to the second section of the Tokyo stock exchange and if Toshiba

:02:51. > :02:54.couldn't file results by today then there were fears it could even get

:02:55. > :03:01.delisted, but at least that the Earth seems to be waning. Hopefully

:03:02. > :03:09.the drama ends today, we will have to wait and see. -- that the. In

:03:10. > :03:13.Japan one of the biggest companies that makes liquid-crystal displays

:03:14. > :03:20.for television screens is slashing 30% of its workforce. Japan Display

:03:21. > :03:26.said it will cut 3700 jobs as part of restructuring. It also expects to

:03:27. > :03:31.make a loss of $1.5 billion in the current financial year. Japan

:03:32. > :03:35.Display has been in the red for the last three years.

:03:36. > :03:40.The owner of Fox News and pretty fair century Fox movie studio looks

:03:41. > :03:46.to have benefited from a Trump bump. Fox said revenues rose by 1.5% to

:03:47. > :03:51.$6.8 billion in the fourth quarter after rating is at its cable TV

:03:52. > :03:55.business improved and grew in more advertisers. Fox is owned by media

:03:56. > :04:00.mogul Rupert Murdoch. He's looking to buy the rest of the European

:04:01. > :04:08.television station Sky that it does not already own for 14.5 billion

:04:09. > :04:13.dollars. India starter motors, which owns Jaguar Land Rover, reported a

:04:14. > :04:18.10% fall in income to just under 9.5 billion US dollars for the three

:04:19. > :04:22.months between India and June -- April and June. There's been an

:04:23. > :04:27.issue with the heavy vehicle business and that resulted in poor

:04:28. > :04:35.results. But profitability gained over 40%. Union workers at Hyundai

:04:36. > :04:39.are expected to begin a partial strike today, factory workers plan

:04:40. > :04:45.to stop work on Monday next week to pressure the management to raise

:04:46. > :04:50.wages. This is after that troubles were reported at the fifth biggest

:04:51. > :04:54.world automaker. Profits have fallen for 14 straight quarters, or 3.5

:04:55. > :04:59.years. Car sales have been hit hard by political tensions with China,

:05:00. > :05:04.which accounts for one fifth of sales. What impact will a partial

:05:05. > :05:09.strike have on the car company? Earlier I asked analyst James Rooney

:05:10. > :05:14.in Seoul. Unfortunately there never is a good time for companies to

:05:15. > :05:21.experience strikes. For Hyundai, this is one of the rights of summer.

:05:22. > :05:27.For the past 30 years or so they have had this Midsummer strike

:05:28. > :05:32.around wage negotiations and almost it would seem like a shame if it

:05:33. > :05:39.wasn't happening. However, it's not a good time for them to be demanding

:05:40. > :05:44.significant wage increases. Were talking about the order of 7% here,

:05:45. > :05:49.very significant relevant to how inflation is today. Surely this will

:05:50. > :05:53.have an impact on the bottom line of Hyundai going forward and the new

:05:54. > :05:57.president of South Korea, James Comey has been focusing on job

:05:58. > :06:03.creation and wage increases. Will this have an impact on negotiations?

:06:04. > :06:08.I think the political environment with the new leadership certainly is

:06:09. > :06:12.more favourable towards management, and for various reasons, I'm sure we

:06:13. > :06:20.are all aware of, the leadership are under pressure after the scandal

:06:21. > :06:25.with Park. Unfortunately for Hyundai that political environment includes

:06:26. > :06:32.the whole missile issue that China has been so upset about, which has

:06:33. > :06:38.cut off the growth in sales in Hyundai's most significant market,

:06:39. > :06:43.which has shut. On the other hand, Hyundai is so used to having this

:06:44. > :06:48.kind of event, they saw the sort of build it into their budget and later

:06:49. > :06:54.on in the year they will make up the production shortfall in relation to

:06:55. > :06:56.their annual bills -- they sort of. It's part of the fabric of the

:06:57. > :07:03.industrial structure here unfortunately. Unions aren't as

:07:04. > :07:06.powerful as you would think and strikes are quite rare but when they

:07:07. > :07:12.happen they can be quite colourful. You may hear a lot of noise in the

:07:13. > :07:17.street if that gets out of control. South Korean business expert James

:07:18. > :07:22.Rooney in Seoul. Now for the latest in our series that's been running

:07:23. > :07:25.across the BBC this week. Today we turn our attention to Silicon Valley

:07:26. > :07:29.where technology giants like Google and Facebook are leading the way

:07:30. > :07:33.when it comes to offering paid maternity leave. The US doesn't

:07:34. > :07:37.require paid leave guarantees but Donald Trump's daughter is trying to

:07:38. > :07:44.convince her father policy needs to change. Our North America technology

:07:45. > :07:48.reporter Dave Lee has more. Macro a when Martha decided it was time to

:07:49. > :07:52.have children she knew her job managing public relations for

:07:53. > :07:54.technology companies would become untenable.

:07:55. > :07:58.I've been thinking along time about all of the ways that work doesn't

:07:59. > :08:03.align well with being a professional parent. She decided to set up her

:08:04. > :08:06.own firm and set about putting in place family friendly policies, the

:08:07. > :08:11.types of which most people in this country don't have access to. I

:08:12. > :08:15.decided to be intentional about building a business when we can be

:08:16. > :08:19.ourselves, the mothers among us but being clear with younger employees

:08:20. > :08:23.that if they have things they want to pursue that fall inside of normal

:08:24. > :08:27.work hours, they camp as you those also know we are not favouring one

:08:28. > :08:34.stage of life over another or penalising one in favour of another

:08:35. > :08:39.-- they can pursue. Raising a child in the US is very difficult and

:08:40. > :08:43.costly. 12% of private sector companies offer paid parental leave

:08:44. > :08:47.and the US is one of three countries in the world not to have a paid

:08:48. > :08:51.parental leave law. But it's hoped Silicon Valley is starting a trend

:08:52. > :08:55.that could change that. This organisation argues for better

:08:56. > :08:59.coverage for American workers. There's been a lot of momentum from

:09:00. > :09:02.tech companies around increasing access to maternity leave and in

:09:03. > :09:07.particular family leave and medical leave, which is great. It shows it

:09:08. > :09:11.makes good business sense, these companies wouldn't be doing it if it

:09:12. > :09:14.wasn't good for bottom lines, and that's good for the economy and

:09:15. > :09:19.those individual families and employees. One of those tech

:09:20. > :09:22.companies is go daddy, the world's largest seller of Internet domain

:09:23. > :09:28.names. The company has faced criticism in the past for being an

:09:29. > :09:32.overly macho workplace, a scenario prevalent in technology. Like a lot

:09:33. > :09:35.of tech companies we have lots of similar issues, we are trying to

:09:36. > :09:39.resolve those and continuing to build an awesome culture where

:09:40. > :09:43.people can do the best work of their lives. Anyone who is a new parent

:09:44. > :09:47.can get 12 weeks paid to melt, welcomed their new family member,

:09:48. > :09:52.the birthing mother gets another six weeks to recover as well physically

:09:53. > :09:56.-- to welcome. Silicon Valley is perhaps best place to set the sample

:09:57. > :10:01.given the fierce competition for top talent. The progress requires people

:10:02. > :10:07.at the top of big companies to value both successful careers and happy

:10:08. > :10:11.families. Dave Lee, BBC News, in San Francisco. We have half a minute to

:10:12. > :10:15.tell you about the financial markets in Asia, despite the escalating

:10:16. > :10:19.tension in the Korean peninsula and relations between North Korea and

:10:20. > :10:26.the United States, we are seeing some gains in some of the Asian

:10:27. > :10:31.bourses. The Nikkei 225 up 74, the All Ordinaries gaining 22. Thank you

:10:32. > :10:33.so much for spending your time with us. I'm Rico Hizon, Sport Today is

:10:34. > :10:34.up