Business Briefs : Bank of Japan

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) left rates unchanged yesterday and painted a brighter picture of the economic outlook, offering a further indication that the likelihood of additional stimulus has receded.

The central bank maintained its targets for interest rates and asset purchases, an outcome forecast by all 42 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

The BOJ also raised its growth projections for the first time in a year, as had been widely expected, thanks to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's US$120 billion (S$162 billion) economic package unveiled last month.

BLOOMBERG

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Uber Technologies

Uber Technologies has agreed to sell Uber Eats in India to local rival Zomato, underscoring the US ride-hailing giant's effort to cut back on loss-making operations globally.

Uber will offload the business in return for 9.9 per cent of the Indian start-up, maintaining a foothold in one of the world's fastest-growing Internet arenas, the New York Times reported. Zomato confirmed the sale in a blog post yesterday but did not specify details.

Uber, which is trading well below its initial public offering price, seeks to hive off loss-making operations to achieve its goal of being profitable on an Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) basis by 2021.

BLOOMBERG

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Pacific Radiance

Discussions with a financier who was planning to extend at least US$180 million (S$243 million) in new debt to Pacific Radiance have come to a halt.

The mainboard-listed offshore marine services firm, which is coming up with a debt restructuring plan, on Monday evening said the talks have "stalled" due to "certain difficulties" which arose in the course of discussions around December last year.

The debt funding as well as new equity via a share placement were meant to finance Pacific Radiance's proposed US$180 million acquisition of Abu Dhabi-based Allianz Marine and Logistics Services and to repay the group's existing debts by way of schemes of arrangement.

If the new debt funding had come through, the group would have proposed schemes that included a cash payment of about US$175.6 million to discharge the group's bank debt.

Pacific Radiance on Monday said it has approached other potential financiers who had submitted indicative proposals to the company last year.

THE BUSINESS TIMES