Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements - Uni-Asia Finance ...

Realising A Sustainable Future
9
Chairman’s Message
As we foresee the continuous tight credit policy of financial
institutions, we will emphasise more on equity investment
with other investors, with less reliance on non-recourse
ship financing.
Property Investment / Management
The property market in Japan is still frozen. Lack of available
financing is making the sales-purchase transactions difficult
which is adversely affecting our property investment/
management business. Assuming this situation continues for
the time being, we will make efforts to maintain the resilient
operating cost structure. We will focus more on our fee business
which does not require additional investment and bank finance.
In order to improve the hotel performance, we had enhanced
its management structure so that we can pay more attention
to hotel operation and take necessary actions quickly to cope
with the changes in the market. Even though we expect the
hotel performance to improve in line with the recovery of the
economy in 2010, the market situation is still unstable. To survive
the tough business environment, we will undertake more
detailed marketing for each hotel.
China’s economy is now one of the driving forces pulling the
world economy back on track of recovery. Our first investment
in office units in Guangzhou is performing well, and we will
consider similar investment opportunities when available. We
have been looking at logistics-related business opportunities
in China, because we believe that we can leverage on our
experiences in financing services for transportation / property
sector. In 2009, we started to provide administrative advisory
services in respect of a warehouse project in China, where the
other party invests in and operates the warehouse facilities.
We are thus acting as a service provider without any equity
interest in the project. We may seek for another opportunity
to expand this sort of service function by using our existing
capabilities in ship / property asset management.
Confidence for the future
The outlook for the year 2010 is still uncertain, whether the world
economy will be back on trail of a self sustaining economic
recovery from recession or do we face prolonged sluggish
economic outlook with a double dip recession in the world
economy including Japan. In either case, we expect that there
will be some good chances to capture attractive investment
opportunities which will promote our future growth. Realising
opportunities for growth, we will move quickly by taking
advantage of our available cash resources. We will continue to
enhance our performance by prudent resources management
and appropriate resource allocation.
The Board and I are confident that our strategy and our existing
resources will enable us to overcome the current difficult
business environment and to attain future growth after the end
of the economic crisis. We believe that our contributions as an
alternative asset management company will continue to benefit
our customers with outstanding growth opportunities, and
create value for our shareholders.
Mr Kazuhiko Yoshida
Chairman and CEO
15 March 2010
“Signs of global economic recovery combined with potential income channels
from our existing wide business network open up new possibilities for Uni-Asia
Finance Corporation.”