IN BRIEF (Page 16)

No change

Japanese Economics Minister Hiroko Ota (above) said yesterday she sees no change in Japan's economic conditions despite a faltering stock market, growing concerns over the US economy and rising oil prices.

"At this moment, we see no change in the economy's recovery trend," Ota told a news conference. "I expect the moderate economic recovery to continue," she said.

Job cuts

Citigroup is considering cutting 5 percent to 10 percent of its work force, which totals 327,000, CNBC television reported on Monday, without citing sources.

CNBC said a Citigroup announcement was likely to come later this month when the largest US bank reports quarterly earnings. It also said the bank could sell off a smaller unit.

TPG hires GE boss

US private equity firm TPG said yesterday it had hired General Electric's boss in Japan, Nobuhiko Ito, to help it win deals in the world's second-largest economy.

GE employees are prized by buyout firms for their deal sourcing and managerial training. Ito was most recently president and chief executive of General Electric Japan, Ltd.

Looking for a boost

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Monday the Bush administration was considering how to give the economy a boost as it weathers a housing correction, but does not want to rush.

"Our most immediate goal is to minimize the impact on the real economy," Paulson said in a speech at the New York Society of Securities Analysts.

Ascott offer

CapitaLand Ltd offered at least S$929.5 million ($648 million) to buy out minority owners of Ascott Group Ltd, after shares in Asia's biggest operator of serviced apartments fell 40 percent over the past eight months.

CapitaLand, which owns 67 percent of Ascott Group, will pay S$1.73 a share to take the operator of serviced apartments private, the Singapore-based developer said.

Merrill 'goes for Montag'

Merrill Lynch & Co, the world's biggest brokerage, is in talks to hire Thomas Montag, who resigned as Goldman Sachs Group Inc's global co-head of securities last month, two people with knowledge of the discussions said.

Montag would step in to lead Merrill's global markets division, overseeing equity trading and the fixed-income unit that contributed to the New York-based firm's $2.2 billion third-quarter loss, said the sources.

Slow growth

British retail sales grew at their slowest pace since March 2006 in December, making it the worst Christmas for retailers in three years, a survey showed yesterday.

The British Retail Consortium said the value of sales last month rose 0.3 percent on the year on a like-for-like basis, the weakest growth since a decline in March 2006 and the poorest reading for a December since 2004.

TDK profitability

TDK Corp, the world's biggest maker of magnetic heads that read data in disk drives, plans to raise profitability to the highest in more than two decades after acquisitions bolstered its array of electronic components.

The operating margin will rise to 15 percent in the year ending March 2010, said Chief Executive Officer Hajime Sawabe, declining to elaborate.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/09/2008 page16)