December 7, 2006

Welcome to the Hoover's APAC 50, a monthly list of the companies in the Asia-Pacific region that are most searched on Hoover's. Derived by tracking the search requests of Hoover's subscribers, the Hoover's APAC 50 provides insight on which companies are being watched most closely by corporate executives, as well as sales, marketing, and business development professionals, who represent a large portion of Hoover's customers.

The news behind the biggest movers on this month's Hoover's APAC 50 involves a number of investment strategies.

ITOCHU Corporation (From #90 to #44)

In November ITOCHU demonstrated why it is sometimes hard to grasp the diversity of a large Japanese sogo shosha, or general trading company. ITOCHU does brisk business importing and exporting cars in Japan and abroad; in support of these operations, it owns a stake in Isuzu Motors. In November ITOCHU and another large Isuzu shareholder, Mitsubishi Corporation, invited Toyota to buy a stake in Isuzu as well - a move that is expected to help Isuzu improve its operations in Japan. Meanwhile, another arm of ITOCHU's empire announced that it had formed a joint venture called Kansas Energy Co. to begin selling natural gas in the midwestern U.S. This builds on ITOCHU's broader international operations in petroleum trading.
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Westfield Group (From #68 to #36)

Although most of its holdings are in the U.S., shopping center kingpin Westfield Group calls Australia home. During November, Westfield made a ripple in financial markets when it issued American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) that allow U.S. investors to buy Westfield's shares. The bigger news, though, came when Westfield announced that it would not proceed with a proposed Australian property fund that would have owned stakes in six Australian shopping malls and stood to raise more than $1.5 billion. Westfield has said that it may instead sell some of its assets or create joint ventures to raise further capital.
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