Word: largest
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...longer. Britain's second largest bank last week announced it was selling its share of Barclays National, South Africa's biggest commercial bank, for $116 million to a consortium of South African firms, including Anglo American, a diversified mining and manufacturing company, and the De Beers diamond concern. The divestiture, which followed a gradual reduction of the British bank's holdings in Barclays National to 40.4% by last year, was made in the face of rising worldwide sentiment against apartheid and doing business in South Africa. Said Sir Timothy Bevan, chairman of Barclays: "I'm not a coward...
Barclays' exit, which comes after pullouts by such American industrial giants as General Motors, IBM and Eastman Kodak, is the largest divestiture so far by a European firm. The South African Barclays affiliate employs 25,000 persons at more than 500 branches. More important, Barclays is the first major British enterprise to unload its holdings in South Africa. Britain is South Africa's largest outside investor, with assets worth an estimated $8.5 billion, or 40% of the foreign holdings in the country. If other British firms decide to follow Barclays' example, the exodus could have severe economic and political repercussions...
...South Africa may eventually run short of capital needed to buy out foreign firms. For that reason, British and U.S. companies have an incentive to leave while reasonable deals are still available. Warned an editorial in the Star, Johannesburg's largest daily newspaper: "The present disinvestment stream could become a flood, as foreign companies rush to cash in their chips while the going's good." Pretoria is hoping that Barclays' departure is not the first wave of the flood...
...Japanese auto industry, which employs 10% of the country's work force and generates more than 20% of its exports, has driven into a similarly rough patch. For the fiscal year that ended in June, Toyota Motor, the country's largest car manufacturer, saw its profits fall 17%, to $1.6 billion. That marked Toyota's first decline in four years. For the six months that ended in September, Nissan Motor suffered a $122 million operating loss, its first since 1951. As a result, the company reassigned 2,500 employees to Nissan sales subsidiaries...
Japan's steel manufacturers, who played such a vital role in the country's postwar resurgence, now find themselves besieged by foreign competition. Among the fiercest rivals are South Korean and Brazilian steelmakers. Japan's five largest producers could lose some $2.3 billion this year. In the coming years, some 40,000 workers could lose their jobs. Says Yutaka Takeda, president of Nippon Steel: "This is the worst crisis we've faced since we started making steel...