PRE-MARKET JAPANESE AND SOUTH KOREAN STOCKS NEWS: Earninsgs releases are in focus with SoftBank scheduled to report today

JAPANDentsu (4324 JT) - Co. and BranchLab announced a strategic partnership in which the Co.’s proprietary data will integrate with BranchLab's AI platform, Pathwai. (Newswires)Honda (7267 JT) - Co. 9-month (JPY) net fell 42% Y/Y to 465.4bln, rev. fell 2.2% Y/Y to 16.0tln. (Newswires)Idemitsu Kosan (5019 JT) - Co. 9-month (JPY) net fell 59% Y/Y to 52.6bln. (Newswires)Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (9104 JT) - Co. announced that Jotaro Tamura will succeed Hashimoto as President and CEO, effective April 1st. (Freight Waves)Shimano (7309 JT) - Co. FY (JPY) net fell 56% Y/Y to 34bln, net sales rose 3.4% Y/Y to 466.2bln. (Newswires)Toyota (7203 JT) - Co. will release its first electric vehicle built locally for the US late this year. (Nikkei)Toyota Industries (6201 JT) - A proxy war is intensifying between Toyota Group and Elliott Investment Management over the former’s JPY 5.4tln plan to take Toyota Industries private. (Nikkei)SOUTH KOREADoosan Bobcat (241560 KS) - Co. FY (KRW) oper. profit fell 21% Y/Y to 686.1bln, rev. rose 3% Y/Y to 8.79tln. (ChosunBiz)Hyundai GF Holdings (005440 KS) - Co. restructures to erase dual-listing discount in South Korea. (ChosunBiz)Kakao Corp - Co. 2025 (KRW) net income 525.7bln (prev. loss 161.9bln Y/Y), sales rose 2.9% Y/Y to 8.1tln. (Yonhap)NHN Corp (181710 KS) - Co. 2025 (KRW) net income 57.7bln (prev. loss 192.6bln Y/Y), sales rose 2.5% Y/Y to 2.5tln. (Yonhap)Other NewsSouth Korean Foreign Ministry sets up a team for nuclear-powered sub talks with the US. (Yonhap)South Korean government eyes private investment totalling KRW 100tln in emerging industries such as AI data centres. (Yonhap)South Korea will begin a KRW 1tln project next month to develop AI semiconductors for on-device use. (Yonhap)