IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Dubai deal

The US government has cleared a deal that will give Dubai's state-owned stock exchange a stake in NASDAQ, the US stock exchange said.

NASDAQ said the federal approval allows it and Borse Dubai Ltd to proceed with a deal reached last year.

Under the pact, Dubai gets NASDAQ's stake in the London Stock Exchange Group and a 19.9 percent stake in the US exchange, although its voting stake will be limited to 5 percent.

Lighter cars

Nissan Motor Co will use more magnesium alloys and fiberglass compounds to lower automobile weights and improve fuel efficiency by 2015, Nikkei English News reported, without saying where it got the information.

The Tokyo-based company aims to cut the weight of all vehicles sold worldwide by 15 percent to boost fuel efficiency by 10 percent, the news service said. The move follows a similar action by Toyota Motor Corp.

Sales slow down

TVS Motor Co, India's third-biggest motorcycle maker, said motorcycle and scooter sales fell 5.4 percent last month from a year earlier and that it plans to start selling new models of vehicles.

Sales of motorcycles and scooters fell to 97,576 in December from 103,188 a year earlier, the Chennai-based company said.

Buyers sought

Luis Portillo is "urgently" seeking buyers for his 41 percent stake in Inmobiliaria Colonial SA, the Spanish property company that lost 1.87 billion euros in market value in the last two trading days, Expansion reported.

Portillo, Colonial's outgoing chairman, may have held talks with international funds connected to Spanish developer Joaquin Rivero (above) to discuss selling the holding, the newspaper said.

Investment plans

SK Group plans to invest 8 trillion won ($8.6 billion) in its businesses in 2008, 14 percent more than last year, MoneyToday reported.

The group aims to increase sales by 5 percent to 82 trillion won this year helped by stronger exports and larger investments, the South Korean Internet news provider said.

Tunisian contract

Sumitomo Corp and South Korea's Hyundai Rotem Co won a contract worth about 16.5 billion yen ($148 million) to provide railcars for Tunisia, the Nikkei newspaper reported without saying where it obtained the information.

The companies will deliver 76 railcars to Tunisia's train operator from 2009 to 2010, the newspaper said.

Lower expectations

Gaz de France SA, the operator of Europe's largest natural-gas network, will earn 90 million euros less in the first quarter because of a lower-than-planned increase in gas rates.

The French government approved an average increase of 0.173 euro cents per kilowatt hour, less than the 0.261 euro cent boost requested, the Paris-based company said.

Approval achieved

Indian generic-drug makers Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd and Wockhardt Ltd won US approval to sell copies of Johnson & Johnson's non-prescription allergy medicine Zyrtec, joining at least six other companies that also plan generic versions.

Ohm Laboratories Inc, a North Brunswick, New Jersey-based unit of Ranbaxy, said it would immediately begin selling generic Zyrtec tablets.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/02/2008 page16)