IN BRIEF (Page 16)
Price rises to bite
Chocolate prices are poised to rise significantly due to a surge in the cost of ingredients, a German magazine quoted the head of the world's biggest maker of the confectionery as saying.
The double-digit gain since the beginning of the year in the cost of ingredients such as cocoa, glucose and wheat was "a real challenge", Andreas Jacobs, chairman of Swiss-based chocolate maker Barry Callebaut, told Der Spiegel.
Kazakh purchase
Japan's Toshiba Corp said yesterday that it has agreed to sell 10 percent of US nuclear power plant maker Westinghouse Electric to Kazakhstan's state-run energy company Kazatomprom for $540 million.
By forging ties with the uranium-rich Central Asian republic, Toshiba aims to secure stable supplies of the resource used by power plants.
Tasty potential
Al Islami Foods is close to signing an agreement with UK food distributor First For Foodservice to tap the $4 billion UK market for halal food, which is prepared according to Muslim rules, the Khaleej Times reported.
The United Arab Emirates-based company's joint venture with First For Foodservice will later cater to Muslim communities in continental Europe, the Dubai-based newspaper said.
Firm to snap up rival
KappAhl Holding AB, a Nordic clothes retailer, plans to buy rival Lindex AB for 7.01 billion kronor ($1.03 billion), creating a company with 589 stores across Sweden, Norway and Finland and establishing entry to the Baltic states.
KappAhl offered 102 kronor per share in cash for the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company, 15 percent more than Friday's closing price, according to a statement released yesterday.
Agencies-Bloomberg News
(China Daily 08/14/2007 page16)
