Biz People

Tycoon unveils housing plans

Billionaire Ramesh Chandra's Unitech Ltd, marketing apartments for as much as $1.5 million, is considering building homes that could sell for 1 million rupees ($24,700), as economic growth lifts more Indians out of poverty.

"As people come above the poverty line, there will be a requirement for mass housing," Chandra, 68, said in an interview in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. "They will not be able to afford 4 million rupee houses, their demand will be mainly for 1 million rupee or 1.5 million rupee houses. And for that the demand will be phenomenal."

At least 291 million Indians will increase their annual household income to at least 90,000 rupees, or $5.40 a day, by 2025, McKinsey & Co estimated in May. That's almost equal to all the people in the United States, the world's third-most populous nation.

DLF Ltd and Unitech, India's biggest developers by market value, are benefiting as Asia's fourth-biggest economy expands at an average of 8.6 percent a year.

The country will need as many as 10 million new housing units a year by 2030, according to estimates from the Asian Development Bank.

"We want to start mass housing, we are doing some research," Chandra said.

Japanese fund manager jailed

Activist fund manager Yoshiaki Murakami, who shook up corporate Japan with demands for greater returns for shareholders, was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday for insider trading.

The ruling, which Murakami appealed, comes as regulators crack down on corporate wrong-doing a year after an accounting fraud at Internet firm Livedoor that wiped out more than $5 billion in market value when it came to light.

Murakami, who was also fined a record 1.2 billion yen ($10 million), had once been hailed as a symbol of the shareholder activism that is taking root in Japan and a champion of market principles.

"Murakami is not alone. Many people commit insider trading, but Murakami's visibility made him an obvious target," remarked Mitsuru Yoshikawa, managing director at Daiwa Institute of Research.

"The courts wanted to send a clear signal to markets."

The former trade bureaucrat, who terrified executives with confrontational tactics until his arrest just over a year ago, kept his eyes closed and his jaw clenched as the judge read the sentence.

Prosecutors accused Murakami, 47, of inciting Livedoor to launch a failed February 2005 takeover bid for radio operator Nippon Broadcasting System (NBS), buying up 10 billion yen worth of NBS shares before the tussle for the broadcaster drove up the share price, yielding a 3 billion yen profit.

"This was a crime committed by a professional, the money involved is an almost unparalleled amount and the losses cannot be recouped," Judge Kuniko Koma told Murakami at Tokyo District Court.

(China Daily 07/20/2007 page16)