IN BRIEF (Page 16)
Gradual recovery
Japanese Finance Minister Koji Omi said yesterday that the corporate sector's recovery is gradually filtering through to households, pointing to the falling jobless rate.
"We are hoping that employee wages will rise as the job market tightens in light of improving corporate earnings amid a continuing economic recovery," Omi told a parliamentary committee.
Chief quits
The managing director of British-Dutch computer services group LogicaCMG, Martin Read, is leaving the business, the company said following a recent profits warning.
Read, who had headed the company for 14 years, had decided to leave following speculation as a result of the company's performance, LogicaCMG said.
Health bid
Australian hospital operator Healthscope Ltd launched a A$2.8 billion ($2.3 billion) takeover bid for Symbion Health Ltd yesterday, backed by two private equity firms, in a deal which would create the country's biggest healthcare company.
Symbion has backed the deal in the absence of a better proposal and subject to an independent expert's report, but said it would allow three more weeks for any rival bids to emerge.
Nomura expansion
Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan's top equity underwriter, doubled its investment-banking staff in Europe to win more business selling shares in Asia for Russian companies.
Russian companies seeking investors in Japan and the rest of Asia are a prime target as Nomura looks to increase its share of global stock sales, said Yoshiyuki Numano, co-head of investment banking at Nomura International Plc in London, which doubled its headcount of bankers to 140 in the past 18 months.
Agencies-Bloomberg News
(China Daily 05/30/2007 page16)
