01/05/2013

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:00:02. > :00:12.violence is seen. More slums were attacked by Buddhist mobs in a town

:00:12. > :00:20.near Rangoon. -- Muslims. Now for the latest financial news

:00:20. > :00:23.with World Business Report. It's the first big-ticket item in

:00:23. > :00:29.Greece's privatisation programme - the profitable gambling firm OPAP.

:00:29. > :00:33.But without a last-minute deal today the sale could collapse.

:00:33. > :00:36.We get a status update from Facebook. The world's largest

:00:36. > :00:46.social network will reveal how profitable it is and how it's

:00:46. > :00:51.squeezing more money out of its users on the move.

:00:51. > :00:54.Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock. Also in the

:00:54. > :01:00.programme, more evidence to show China's manufacturing sector is

:01:00. > :01:04.slowing down. We'll have the latest from our team in Singapore.

:01:04. > :01:07.Privatisation is key to Greece getting back on its financial feet.

:01:07. > :01:12.But the sale of the profitable gambling firm OPAP - the first big

:01:12. > :01:15.ticket item on offer - has been riddled with problems. Investors

:01:15. > :01:20.from the only suitor for OPAP have been meeting to discuss an improved

:01:20. > :01:28.11th-hour offer. Athens has given Czech-Greek investment fund Emma

:01:28. > :01:34.Delta until 1100 GMT to increase its bid of 622 million euros.

:01:34. > :01:39.That's around $815 million. For that price the buyer gets a 33%

:01:39. > :01:42.stake in Greece's most profitable firm. And for the Greek government

:01:42. > :01:47.the sale marks the start of its all-important privatisation

:01:47. > :01:51.programme. With the economy in its sixth year of recession, Greece

:01:51. > :01:54.needs to wrap up the sale to show it is finally making good on long-

:01:54. > :02:04.promised efforts to sell off state assets and cut debt, as demanded

:02:04. > :02:08.

:02:08. > :02:13.With me is Kathleen Brooks, Research Director at forex.com.

:02:13. > :02:19.While weather not many bidders for the company? It is profitable. It

:02:19. > :02:25.is their lottery company which is often seen as cash cows. Firstly,

:02:25. > :02:29.there are tax on gaming companies' profits. It is worked up to 30% by

:02:29. > :02:35.the Greek government. That has put people off. It is not like tax

:02:35. > :02:39.increases are going to go away any time soon in Greece. An American

:02:39. > :02:43.company was a bidder. They were put off by the fact they wanted a few

:02:43. > :02:47.conditions attached to the purchase of the company. The Greek

:02:47. > :02:52.government would not allow it. They have been a couple of things that

:02:52. > :02:56.have made it slightly less attractive than it looks on paper.

:02:56. > :03:00.Today, will find out if they succeed or not. It is important for

:03:01. > :03:05.the government this does not a fail. In terms of the privatisation

:03:05. > :03:11.programme led by this agency in charge, how is it going in general?

:03:11. > :03:15.The fact it has been in place since 2011 and was meant to finish up in

:03:15. > :03:22.2015, the fact we are halfway through and only just getting a

:03:22. > :03:28.sale, and may not even get a sale, suggest that this is what we are

:03:28. > :03:32.used to increase. These happen at the last minute. -- in Greece.

:03:32. > :03:38.Promises have been made to the Tricker and European officials to

:03:38. > :03:44.raise cash domestically. They have not done it. It is not on track. If

:03:44. > :03:53.they want to raise money through privatisation by 2015, there have

:03:53. > :03:58.to extend that deadline. How is Greece doing? If they do not

:03:58. > :04:05.succeed in sales by foreign buyers, will they get in trouble again

:04:05. > :04:09.financially? It will make it harder to get their next fund. They need

:04:09. > :04:17.to sell these state assets to get hold of future finances otherwise

:04:17. > :04:26.they will have to be declared bankrupt. Thank you.

:04:26. > :04:29.The deadline is at 11am today. The With over a billion users worldwide

:04:29. > :04:33.there is no doubt it's the number one social media company. Facebook

:04:33. > :04:37.will be giving us its status update later when it reveals how much

:04:37. > :04:40.money it's made in the first three months of this year. All eyes will

:04:40. > :04:44.be on its mobile advertising business - how well the company is

:04:44. > :04:47.able to make money from people using Facebook while on the move.

:04:47. > :04:53.It roughly doubled in the last quarter. Can Facebook maintain that

:04:53. > :04:58.momentum? From New York, Samira Hussain reports.

:04:58. > :05:02.One Mark Zuckerberg and his legion of friends were all smiles, taking

:05:02. > :05:07.the social networking site public. But one year later, a lot has

:05:08. > :05:12.changed. How we are all Sherrin is changing. Increasingly, more people

:05:12. > :05:16.are using Facebook on one of these. One year ago, Facebook had very

:05:17. > :05:21.little advertising come in from mobile devices. Now it accounts for

:05:21. > :05:26.almost one quarter of its revenues. The company is facing stiff

:05:26. > :05:31.competition for those dollars. Google is the elephant in the room.

:05:31. > :05:41.It is the big player. Coup will account for at least 50% or more of

:05:41. > :05:43.

:05:43. > :05:48.the noble art market in the US. -- Facebook has a good idea of what

:05:48. > :05:52.its users like and dislike. That means highly targeted

:05:53. > :05:58.advertisements, something online marketers love. Although my ball

:05:58. > :06:03.and so generate less money, they are the key to Facebook's future. -

:06:03. > :06:07.- mobile advertisements. They are after a younger users. The worry is

:06:07. > :06:13.that they might be losing interest. Facebook has been long around for a

:06:13. > :06:17.long time compared to some companies like Instagram. What is

:06:17. > :06:22.going to be cool is what is going to be new. Facebook thinks about

:06:22. > :06:29.what its users are trying to do and adapting itself to do that. They

:06:29. > :06:34.have been copying a lot of message in apse -- apps. Crime to make

:06:35. > :06:38.their products as relevant as possible. Facebook is not

:06:39. > :06:48.answerable to investors. Remaining both popular and lucrative is a

:06:49. > :06:53.

:06:53. > :06:58.tight balancing act for just about any friend.

:06:58. > :07:07.The manufacturing sector in China continues to slow. Fill us in on

:07:07. > :07:15.the data for the month of April. That is right. We have to the

:07:15. > :07:19.official purchasing index up this morning. What does it mean? A

:07:19. > :07:22.reading above 50 does indicate the manufacturing sector has still

:07:22. > :07:27.expanded but nevertheless economists have been expecting

:07:27. > :07:31.slightly stronger figures than this. The Chinese market is closed for

:07:31. > :07:35.public holiday. Other Asian markets have been trading bloc because of

:07:35. > :07:43.this disappointing figure, especially because it follows

:07:43. > :07:48.growth figures which came in unexpected. The Chinese economy

:07:48. > :07:53.expanded just under 8%. It had double digits for many years until

:07:53. > :07:59.the recent slowdown kick in. The demand for Chinese box remains

:07:59. > :08:04.quite weak, especially in the US and Europe. -- products. They have

:08:04. > :08:09.been trying to rebalance the economy by relying less on

:08:09. > :08:16.manufacturing, by boosting domestic consumption. As the new leadership

:08:16. > :08:23.tries to curb lavish official spending, that is a tricky task for

:08:23. > :08:26.In other news, the Congress in Mexico has approved a major reform

:08:26. > :08:28.of the country's telecommunications industry - a move that could

:08:28. > :08:32.challenge the business empire of the world's richest man, Carlos

:08:32. > :08:35.Slim. The shake-up aims to improve competition in a market currently

:08:35. > :08:43.dominated by Mr Slim's America Movil and Latin America's biggest

:08:43. > :08:47.television network, Televisa. In an unusual Kodak moment, Eastman

:08:47. > :08:50.Kodak says it expects to emerge from bankruptcy, as soon as July,

:08:50. > :08:53.as a commercial imaging business under the control of its creditors.

:08:53. > :08:57.The photography pioneer launched its first camera in 1888 and grew

:08:57. > :09:00.to dominate the market for photographic film, but it was too

:09:00. > :09:08.late to adapt to the digital challenge and sales plummeted in