IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Chemical firm down

Dottikon ES Holding AG, the Swiss fine chemicals maker spun off from Ems-Chemie Holding AG, said fiscal first-half profit fell 2.1 percent because of higher raw material costs and increased recruitment.

Net income in the six months through September decreased to 6.2 million Swiss francs ($5.6 million) from 6.3 million francs a year earlier, the Dottikon, Switzerland-based company said yesterday.

Del Pino raises stake

Grupo Ferrovial SA Chairman Rafael del Pino paid more than 21 million euros to increase his stake in the Spanish builder, a regulatory filing shows.

Del Pino bought shares between November 19 and 21, boosting his direct stake to 1.18 percent from 0.9 percent, the filing said. The executive has disclosed share purchases at least three times this month.

Investment bank fined

D. Carnegie & Co, the Nordic region's largest publicly traded investment bank, was given the highest fine ever levied by the Stockholm stock exchange's disciplinary committee for breaking trading regulations.

The company's investment banking unit was fined 5 million kronor ($790,300) after some of its brokers manipulated market prices to "conceal intentional incorrect valuations previously undertaken within the bank's derivative trading portfolio", the committee said.

Spending up

Holiday spending at US retailers climbed 6.5 percent to $20 billion over the Thanksgiving weekend as consumers sought half-off sales and early store openings.

Sales on the Sunday following Thanksgiving climbed 4.2 percent to $3.6 billion, ShopperTrak RCT Corp said. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, recorded an 8.3 percent increase to $10.3 billion, the Chicago-based research firm said.

Warehouse leaps

Warehouse Group Ltd jumped the most in 17 months on the New Zealand stock exchange after Woolworths Ltd and Foodstuffs NZ Ltd won a court appeal allowing them to bid for the discount-store operator.

Woolworths, Australia's largest retailer, and New Zealand cooperative Foodstuffs appealed a decision by the antitrust regulator blocking them from increasing their 10 percent stakes in the company.

Bankruptcy filing

Terra Securities ASA, a Norwegian brokerage, will file for bankruptcy after the country's financial watchdog revoked its license and accused the company of failing to inform municipal clients about investment risks.

Terra Securities is under investigation by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway, which in a statement accused the company of "serious and systematic violations of good code of conduct".

Boost for juice firm

Britvic Plc, the second-largest UK soft-drink maker, said annual profit rose 76 percent as more Britons drank juices and water instead of carbonated beverages.

Net income climbed to 42.5 million pounds, or 19.5 pence a share, in the 52 weeks through September from 24.2 million pounds, or 11.2 pence, a year earlier, the Chelmsford, England-based company said yesterday in Regulatory News Service statement.

Qinetiq climbs

Qinetiq Group Plc, the United Kingdom's largest defense-research company, rose the most in two months in London trading after sales of military robots and security scanners buoyed first-half earnings.

The stock advanced 9.75 pence, or 5.7 percent, to 182 pence, the biggest gain since September 27, giving the London-based company a market value of 1.2 billion pounds.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 11/30/2007 page16)