Toyota wins back world's top auto sales crown from GM

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Tokyo, Feb 7 : Toyota Motor Corp regained the crown as the world's top selling automaker in 2012, posting record-high sales and beating rivals General Motors (GM) and Volkswagen.

Toyota said it sold 9.75 million vehicles group-wide around the world last year, a record for the 75-year-old Japanese automaker and up 22.6 percent from a year ago.

The result was in line with the company's December forecast, and put it back in the No. 1 spot, which it lost in 2011 when it was hit by a wave of negative publicity after a recall crisis in the United States, and a disrupted supply chain following an earthquake in Japan and floods in Thailand.

Toyota held the global sales crown from 2008 through 2010, but fell to third place in 2011 behind GM and Volkswagen.

GM sold 9.28 million vehicles in 2012, up 2.9 percent from a year ago, while Volkswagen sold 9.07 million vehicles, up 11.2 percent.

Toyota aims to sell 9.91 million vehicles group-wide globally in 2013, up 1.6 percent from 2012.

The Toyota group also includes sales at Daihatsu Motor Co  and Hino Motors Ltd. Toyota-only sales hit a record-high 8.72 million vehicles, up 22.8 percent on a year ago.

Toyota's domestic rival Nissan Motor Co said it sold a record 4.94 million vehicles globally in 2012, while Honda Motor Co sold 3.82 million vehicles, up 19 percent.

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Bank of America begins moving $50 billion of derivatives to UK: FT

London, Feb 7 : Bank of America (BAC) has begun moving $50 billion of derivatives out of its Irish-based operations into its British subsidiary, The Financial Times reported on its website, citing people close to the operation.

The move will allow the world's number 10 bank by assets to benefit from tax breaks stemming from accumulated losses in its UK business, the FT said.

According to the Financial Times, bankers said Irish officials were uncomfortable with the scale of the business which posed a theoretical risk to Irish taxpayers.

UK regulators were also keen to have closer control of the European operations of the bank which has its operational management based in London, said the FT.

A large chunk of Bank of America's European business, including cash management, corporate lending and derivatives, is traditionally routed through the Dublin subsidiary, said the FT. Bank of America was unavailable for immediate comment.

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Volunteers hold social service camp at Hazratbal

Srinagar, Feb 7 : On the occasion of Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi (SAW) a social service camp was organized by Civil Defence, in collaboration with J&K Bharat Scouts and Guides, at Hazratbal here.

The volunteers assisted the people visiting the Shrine, provided them refreshments and also helped the traffic police in regulating the traffic.

The volunteers were led by ASI (M) Shabir Ahmad Khan and District Training Com, Imran Khan. Deputy Chief Warden, Civil Defence Srinagar, Aamir Ali conveyed appreciation to the volunteers for their selfless service, on behalf of Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Baseer Ahmed Khan, who is also the Controller, Civil Defence, Srinagar and DIG CD, Mubarak Ahmed Ganai.

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Retail investors can recover Rs 12,145 cr from relisting: Report

Mumbai, eb 7: Retail investors, who lost a whopping Rs 61,000 crore in blocked funds due to suspension of trading in 1,450 firms during 1992-2009, could get back Rs 12,145 crore on re-listing of some these firms, says a report by CNI Research.

Between November 2009 and November 2012, as many as 250 companies (out of the 1,450 firms which were suspended) got relisted, as a result of which investors could recover their blocked funds, said CNI Research, Chairman and Managing Director Kishor P Ostwal in the report.

"During the past three years close to 250 companies have come out of trading suspension and shares of many of them are at 52-week high and many have changed hands. As a result, these companies today have a combined market cap of Rs 12,145 crore," he said.

The report further says the balance Rs 58,296 crore blocked in such stocks could also be recovered if the regulators allow the remaining 1,200 companies to relist.

Going by the success of relisting, the actual value of money locked in the system could be as high Rs 1 lakh crore, it said.

In November 2009, CNI Research, which deals with capital markets, had in a report said that BSE and NSE had suspended trading in 1,450 firms for not meeting the listing norms. Of these companies, the details about as many as 574 were missing from the exchanges. Of such 574 companies, 536 were on the BSE and the rest 38 were on the NSE.

The present report suspects that as considerable time has lapsed, this could be one of the backdoor de-listing routes, where promoters sell shares in the open market, following violation of the listing norms which prompts the exchanges to suspend them from trading.

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