09/01/2018 Asia Business Report

Minister.

Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

Strong demand for memory chips boost

Samsung's quarterly profits to a

record high. After a day of

soldiering through the sites, French

President Macron gets down to

business, focusing on economic

relations between the two countries.

Good morning, Asia, hello world.

Glad you could join us for another

exciting edition of Asia Business

Report. I'm Rico Hizon. We start off

with Samsung Electronics, and

despite having its boss behind bars,

but Korean conglomerate appears to

be going from strength to strength.

It released its earnings guidance

this morning and while it missed

expectations it expects a record

quarterly profit in the fourth

quarter. For more I am joined by my

colleague. Why did they miss

expectations?

If you thought it was

because of the scandals, it has got

nothing to do with it. It is because

of the strong South Korean currency,

which makes its currency more

expensive overseas. But even though

it missed expectations, it is still

a pretty impressive number. A record

quarterly profit of $14 billion in

just three months, the final three

months of 2017. That is up 64%

compared to a year ago. And it is

all because of the strong demand for

memory chips. It was of course we

all seem to be a test with

smartphones, and part of Samsung's

strength is that they do not just

make smartphones, but displays and

chips. It has displaced Intel as the

world's biggest chipmaker. And the

company missed those expectations

earlier, and the shares are actually

trading lower at this hour in Seoul.

And of course, you have the South

Korean yuan strengthening because of

tighter monetary policy from the

Korean central bank. Talking of

smartphones, our addiction to these

machines is worrying some Apple

shareholders. Two of them said the

company needs to do more to help

teenagers and children to put down

the devices, because they could

impact mental health. Our business

reporter has the details. They are

quite big shareholders. I mean, one

is actually the teachers' pension

fund, so this is something you might

expect from investors like that. We

have had examples in America of

investors who are for example

pension funds taking up social

causes or asking for changes in the

way a particular company operate.

You know, for a social cause. But

the other big investor, a huge

investor, has billions of dollars in

the fund. It is actually surprising

for a statement like that to come

from them. As far as what investors

are saying, in their letter to Apple

they say it will make good business

sense. If you start paying attention

to health issues, eventually in the

long run it will make business sense

because they say there is growing

societal and these that at -- that

some people might be getting too

much of a good thing. They have

asked Apple to spread awareness to

parents about possible addiction and

what they can do to reduce iPhone

usage by their children and to study

the impact on mental health of being

addicted to your phone. So in that

sense, I think, for the company to

respond to that, which it so far

hasn't, I think they are in a pretty

easy spot. But remember, this also

comes on the back of last week and

the week before that we were talking

about Apple being on the back foot

when they had to come out and say

they were slowing down iPhones

because of battery issues. So of

course it is not good news that

investors have come out and said

this, but in that sense they are not

really in a sticky spot.

Overall it

has not been a good day for Apple,

they have also been sued by Paris

prosecutors over a suspected plan to

throttle its products. It admitted

it intentionally slows down older

models of iPhones over time.

Manufacturers are being criticised

the building in the expiry of their

product, so that consumers will be

forced to replace them.

With Europe

looking divided, experts say France

is gaining the lead in access to

China. Emmanuel Macron is on the

mainland for a second day as he

tries to drum up closer trade ties

with the second largest economy.

Trade between the countries in 2016

was worth $70 billion US, but

massively skewed in China's favour.

They have roughly $33 billion

surplus with France. Chinese

economists say they believe Emmanuel

Macron will be able to narrow the

trade gap.

After this basically he

is definitely bringing back some big

deals. At least now the rumours have

been saying that at least the

Chinese will invest in Airbus,

narrowing the trade deficit with

France.

Definitely that deal with

Airbus is much bigger than exporting

more wine and beef to the mainland.

I think Airbus has been

traditionally there, but the new way

of narrowing the gap should go

beyond nuclear, automobiles, and

then the Airbus jet. Because it is

the new growth area.

Surely the

Chinese also want more French

investments into China.

Yes, and

that is why I think on Emmanuel

Macron's agenda will be asking China

for preferential policy towards the

French, which the European chamber

of commerce have continued lobbying

for, for a more fair trade and

investment policy for European

firms.

But will the Chinese also

want more access not only to France

but into the European Union? More

mergers and acquisitions, after the

failed bid to buy a company in the

United States?

Yes, for sure.

Definitely because of the overall

French position in that initiative.

So overall, China needs France,

especially when the UK now is busy

dealing with Brexit.

Some people are

calling for a boycott of H&M over

and ad they consider to be racist.

Posts on social media point to a

photograph of a black child

modelling a hoodie, saying coolest

monkey in the jungle. Others are

defending them, saying it is a

mistake. They have apologised to

anyone this may have offended. Sony

is singing a sweet June after

striking a deal with Facebook, which

will allow it to stream work from

its Instagram. The catalogue

includes Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift and

Ed Sheeran, who can earn royalties

from the use of their music on the

social media platforms. Remember

that Google engineer who was fired

after writing an infamous memo with

gender stereotypes? He sued his

former employer on Monday. He claims

Google systematically discriminates

against white Conservative men. If I

told you there was a new software

that can draw better than you can,

well, it turns simple scribbles into

detailed paintings and it is on show

at the Consumer Electronics Show in

Las Vegas. Let's take a look.

I am going to have a go on Vincent.

I am going to turn my scribbles into

art. Let's try a picture of London

with Tower Bridge and the houses of

parliament. So what is the system

doing here?

It is looking at the

edges you draw and imagining those

as the tracings of a masterpiece,

and it is trying to create that

masterpiece.

It looks a little bit

like something you might find in a

hotel bedroom.

I think that is that,

it is bold and colourful typically.

It is looking at the shapes on the

horizon and inventing something

quite colourful.

I have had a go at

doing a self-portrait here as well.

It is quite hard to get it to

recognise and fill in a face as you

might expect it to look. Why is

that?

The simple answer is you are

not drawing a face exactly how it

might look in a painting. So it is

my art skills. I have too much of

the modern face for Renaissance art.

Art and technology, an amazing

combination. Let's have a quick look

at the markets, and most of them are

in positive territory. The Nikkei

225, the Hang Seng and the all

ordinaries index well entrenched in

positive territory. This is after

record highs on Wall Street

overnight. Thank you for investing

your time with