British Airways (BA) recorded a net loss of £208 million ($471.5 million) for the six months to Sept 30, compared with a profit of £42 million in the same period last year.

Revenues fell by 13.7 per cent to £4.1 billion.

Chief executive Willie Walsh warned BA's 38,690 staff on Friday that the airline's worst first-half results since privatisation made further cost reductions "essential".

But the Unite trade union, which is trying to stop reductions in cabin crew levels, vowed to press ahead with a strike ballot that could bring the airline to a halt from Dec 21. The Guardian

Japan's economy will continue to recover at a gradual pace from its worst post-war recession, Bank of Japan (BoJ) deputy governor Hirohide Yamaguchi told a parliamentary committee on Friday.

"The chance that the economy will have a second dip is small," he said, adding that the pace of expansion would remain moderate because companies will continue to restrain hiring and wages.

The BoJ last week pledged to prolong its policy of holding interest rates near zero but decided to stop buying corporate debt from banks at the end of the year. Bloomberg

Mainboard-listed SembCorp Industries posted a 2.2-per-cent rise in its third quarter net earnings to $148.1 million from a year ago.

This was after its revenue for the three months ended September gained 3 per cent on-year to $2.6 billion. The company said its utilities and marine businesses continued to be its main profit contributors.

The firm said the improvement in its marine business was mainly due to higher operating margin from its rig building and offshore and conversion projects. Its environment business meanwhile also recorded an increase in earnings due to lower operational costs.

American International Group (AIG) posted its second straight quarterly profit on Friday, as investment losses narrowed and catastrophe costs declined.

AIG's third-quarter net income of US$455 million ($621 million) compared with a net loss of US$24.5 billion in the same period a year earlier. Its net income of US$1.82 billion in the second quarter, its first profit since 2007, was also due to narrowing investment losses.

Before that, the financial crisis had resulted in AIG accumulating more than US$100 billion in net losses, and it required government lifelines that cost US taxpayers more than US$180 billion. Bloomberg