IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Alitalia decision

Loss-making Italian airline Alitalia on Tuesday said it had put off a decision on picking a buyer until tomorrow, awaiting a final recommendation from its adviser.

The airline was expected to back either Air France-KLM or smaller rival Air One on Tuesday as the bidder with whom to begin exclusive talks. But the Italian government, which owns 49.9 percent of the airline, is said to be still divided on who to back.

Darden's drop

Darden Restaurants Inc reported a nearly 30 percent drop in quarterly net earnings on Tuesday as fewer customers hurt sales and food and acquisition costs rose.

The parent of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurant chains also scaled back its profit growth target for the year because a weak dollar is making imported products more expensive to buy. Its shares fell 7.5 percent in extended trade.

DPRK terminal

OAO Russian Railways plans to build a $100 million container terminal in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as the world's largest rail company tries to create a land transport corridor linking Asia to Europe.

State-run Russian Railways wants to turn the DPRK port of Rajin into a hub capable of handling 320,000 containers a year for shipment across Russia to Europe, the company said.

Stock boost

NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's slowest- growing wireless operator by subscribers, rose 1.7 percent in Tokyo trading yesterday, the most in two weeks, after a report said it's in talks with Apple Inc to sell the iPhone in the country.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs recently met DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura to discuss selling the iPhone in Japan, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.

King likely to stay

Mervyn King, whose term as Bank of England governor ends in June, is likely to be reappointed in the next few weeks for a second five-year term, the London-based Times said, citing unidentified people close to the government.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling may have agreed a change of governor would have a destabilizing effect on their economic policy, the newspaper said.

Limits scrapped

Altadis SA, the maker of Gauloises cigarettes, gained shareholder approval to remove limits on voting rights, fulfilling a condition for Imperial Tobacco Group Plc to complete its bid for the Spanish company.

Investors voted to eliminate the constraints at an extraordinary general meeting in Madrid on Tuesday. Imperial agreed on July 18 to buy Madrid-based Altadis for 50 euros a share, or 12.6 billion euros, after a four-month takeover battle with buyout firm CVC Capital Partners Ltd.

Holding reduced

Sports Direct International Plc, the United Kingdom's biggest sporting-goods retailer, said it cut its stake in Adidas AG, the world's second-biggest maker of sporting goods.

Sports Direct held 1 million Adidas shares, or 0.49 percent of the stock, on Monday, down from 5.03 million shares, or 2.47 percent, on October 28, the UK retailer said yesterday.

Sale likely

Woolworths Holdings Ltd, a South African clothing and food retailer, may sell its financial services unit to Absa Group Ltd, Business Day reported, citing Syd Vianello, an analyst at Nedcor Securities.

Absa, the country's third-largest bank, was in talks with several retailers and no deal has been concluded, the Johannesburg-based newspaper cited spokesman Patrick Wadula as saying.

Agencies-Bloomberg News

(China Daily 12/20/2007 page16)