IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Ahold advances

Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch owner of Stop & Shop supermarkets in the United States, said third-quarter profit rose 4 percent, beating analysts' estimates.

Net income increased to 214 million euros, the Amsterdam-based company said yesterday in a Hugin newswire statement. The median estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News was 169.7 million euros.

Profit plans

Thomas Cook Group Plc, the tourism company formed when Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group Plc merged, said it plans to double operating profit to 620 million euros in three years.

Thomas Cook aims to increase sales to around 13 billion euros by fiscal 2010, with financial services accounting for 370 million euros and revenue from independent travel 3.3 billion, the Peterborough, England-based company said yesterday.

Chairman changed

H&R Block Inc, the biggest US tax preparer, replaced Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Ernst after $1 billion of losses tied to subprime mortgages.

Richard Breeden, the hedge fund manager and former head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, was named chairman, H&R Block said in a statement yesterday. Alan M. Bennett, who retired this year as Aetna Inc's chief financial officer, becomes the interim CEO of Kansas City, Missouri-based H&R Block.

Cement firm falls

Taiheiyo Cement Corp, Japan's biggest producer of the building material, fell the most in six weeks after Mizuho Securities cut its rating on the stock because of rising coal prices and a weaker North American market.

The shares dropped as much as 7.9 percent to 246 yen, and led declines on the MSCI World Index. They traded 5.2 percent lower as of 10:06 am on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the biggest one-day drop since October 9.

Lion rises

Lion Nathan Ltd's second-half profit rose 54 percent on accelerating sales of more profitable beers and a one-time gain from selling property.

Net income was A$120.1 million ($107 million) in the six months ended September 30 at the Sydney-based company, from A$77.9 million a year earlier. The result was calculated by subtracting first-half earnings from the A$282.1 million full-year profit reported by Australia's second-biggest brewer yesterday.

Green light

Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the maker of Davidoff cigarettes, obtained approval to introduce its cigarette brands in the United States.

The National Association of Attorneys General confirmed that Imperial's application to join the Master Settlement Agreement has been approved, the Bristol, England-based company said yesterday.

Costly turnaround

Air One's turnaround plan for Alitalia SpA includes 2,300 job cuts and changing the airline's inter-continental routes, La Stampa reported without saying where it got the information.

The success of Air One's offer may hinge on its plan to reorganize Alitalia's ground services division, which rival bidder Air France-KLM Group wants to eliminate, the newspaper said.

Asset sale urged

South Africa should sell some of the assets of Eskom Holdings Ltd to help fund the state-owned power company's expansion, Business Report said, citing the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.

Eskom should sell its power stations to private companies, which would then sell electricity back to the company, the Johannesburg-based newspaper quoted Mbulelo Ncetezo, the executive manager of electricity generation, as saying.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 11/22/2007 page16)