IN BRIEF (Page 17)

China Daily | Updated: 2008-01-03 06:59

Major writedown

Citigroup Inc, the biggest US bank, may have to reduce the value of holdings by $12 billion in the fourth quarter because of financial-market swings, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co analysts.

Citigroup, based in New York, may post a loss of $3.3 billion, or about 65 cents a share, in the quarter because of a writedown of collateralized debt obligations, Bernstein analysts including Howard K. Mason wrote in a note to investors dated December 31.

Jobs boost

German employment growth more than doubled in 2007, with the average number of people in work rising to a post-unification record of 39.7 million, preliminary Federal Statistics Office data showed yesterday.

Employment increased by 1.7 percent last year, or 649,000, the strongest rate since 1.9 percent in 2000, after growth of 0.6 percent, or 242,000, in 2006, the figures showed.

Bank sackings

Commerzbank has sacked the head of its US business, Hans Joachim Doepp, and another top manager responsible for the lending business in the United States, a Commerzbank spokesman said yesterday.

The spokesman declined to comment on whether the departures of the two executives were linked to the credit turmoil stemming from problems in the subprime mortgage market in the United States.

'No rush'

Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial is in no rush to refinance the 10 billion pounds of debt taken on to buy British airports operator BAA, the Financial Times reported yesterday.

Fears have risen over the long-awaited refinancing of the debt through a planned securitization after the credit crisis effectively closed the European asset-backed bond market, with many predicting it will not reopen until the second half of 2008.

Turbine order

Denmark's Vestas, the world's biggest maker of wind turbines, said yesterday it had clinched a 99 megawatts turbine order for a project in the United States.

The order is for 33 units of its V90-3.0 megawatt turbine to be installed by RES Americas Inc at its Central Plains Wind Farm. It did not disclose financial details. Delivery is scheduled for the second half of 2008.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/03/2008 page17)