IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Kashagan deal

Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGas has reached a deal with an Eni-led consortium over developing the giant Kashagan oil field which will give it an equal share in the project with the largest shareholders.

In a statement, the Kazakh company said all companies in the consortium - which also includes Royal Dutch Shell, France's Total, US companies Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips and Japan's Inpex - had agreed unanimously to the new terms. The biggest shareholders in the group - Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Total - each had 18.52 percent in the field.

No new plants

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, the maker of Subaru cars, is planning no new car assembly plants before 2011 and instead will add capacity in Japan to meet its goal of expanding sales by 17 percent in 2010 from last year.

"A brand new factory would cost too much, and we don't have the right level of sales to build a new one anywhere," Chief Executive Officer Ikuo Mori said at the North American International Auto Show.

Bahraini order

Boeing Co won an order from Bahrain's Gulf Air for as many as 24 of its 787 aircraft, worth as much as $6 billion, according to Gulf Air, which also agreed an initial request for eight Airbus A320s.

The Boeing order is for 16 of the 787 Dreamliner passenger planes, worth $3.4 billion, with options for eight more. The first of the aircraft will be delivered in 2016.

Corn surges

Chicago corn futures surged more than 3 percent to a fresh 11-year high early yesterday, following a bullish government crop report, traders said.

March corn on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 13 cents, or 2.73 percent, at $5.08 per bushel by 0129 GMT, after rising as much as 3.2 percent to $5.10.

Beiersdorf gains

Beiersdorf AG, the German maker of Nivea skin creams, gained the most in more than three years in Frankfurt trading after JPMorgan Chase & Co and Exane BNP Paribas raised their recommendations ahead of full-year earnings today.

Beiersdorf gained as much as 7.8 percent and was up 3.17 euros, or 6.8 percent, to 50 euros at 10:32 am in Frankfurt, the steepest daily percentage gain since November 10, 2004. That valued the company at 12.6 billion euros.

Property purchase

Bahrain-based investment bank Investcorp said it had bought an office property in New York for $1.4 billion from Dubai state investment agency Istithmar.

The offices are leased to 37 tenants including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston and GE Capital, and the property is home to Investcorp's New York offices.

UK port stake

Australian investment bank Babcock & Brown Ltd said yesterday it had acquired a strategic stake in British ports operator Forth Ports Plc.

Babcock, already one of Europe's largest port operators, said it controlled 20.4 percent of Forth's issued share capital. The bulk of that, 19.6 percent, was held by its European Infrastructure Fund, while Babcock itself held 0.8 percent.

Board calls dismissed

Siemens Chief Executive Peter Loescher dismissed shareholder calls for new supervisory board members to signal a fresh start as the company struggles to emerge from a corruption scandal.

Loescher told German weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview published on Sunday he could not support those demands because it was the supervisory board that ensured the realignment of the company.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/15/2008 page16)