IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Prada IPO

Italian luxury fashion house Prada has scheduled its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) for June, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

The report, quoting a source familiar with the matter, said the company was planning to list despite worries of a US economic slowdown spreading to Europe's luxury market.

Alstom alliance

Alstom is still keen on forging an alliance with state-owned nuclear reactors maker Arvea, the head of the French industrial group said yesterday, adding he did not know if a deal would go through.

"Today I don't know of any decision taken by the government, Areva's shareholder, and I don't know either the timing to do so," Alstom Chief Executive Patrick Kron told a conference call on Alstom's third-quarter revenues.

'Natural target'

Vivendi sees German pay-TV group Premiere as a "natural potential target", Vivendi Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy was quoted as saying yesterday.

He also told the Financial Times he remained interested in gaining full control of mobile phone group SFR.

Lender slides

Wells Fargo & Co, the No 2 US mortgage lender, said fourth-quarter profit fell 38 percent, the first decline in more than six years, as more people missed payments on mortgages and home equity loans.

Shares, nevertheless, rose as much as 6.1 percent as the earnings decline was smaller than expected, while deposits and loans grew at a double-digit pace.

Sales up

Associated British Foods Plc, the maker of Twinings teas, maintained sales growth in its first quarter on higher spending at Primark discount clothes stores and gains at its food division.

Associated British Foods shares rose as much as 9.6 percent, the most in almost eight years, after the London-based company said yesterday in a statement sales climbed 13 percent in the 16 weeks to Jan. 5. Growth was unchanged from the fiscal year that ended in September.

Possible delay

Rio Tinto Group, the company fending off a $114 billion offer from BHP Billiton Ltd, may be forced to delay a South African aluminum smelter because Eskom Holdings Ltd. says it can't supply enough power for the project.

Eskom, South Africa's state-owned electricity monopoly, may renegotiate a power agreement it signed with Alcan Inc, prior to that company being acquired by Rio, Eskom Finance Director Bongani Nqwababa said yesterday. A spokeswoman for Rio declined to comment.

Likely expansion

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's largest bank, plans to increase its commodities staff by 15 percent to 25 percent this year as record prices for oil, gold and soybeans increase the potential for profits.

The bank has 150 to 250 people in its commodity unit now, David Silbert, Deutsche Bank's global head of commodities, said in a Jan 15 interview in London. He wouldn't be more specific. Securities firms such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Credit Suisse Group added a record 450 people for commodities last year, according to Options Group, a New York-based recruitment firm.

Growth warning

European Central Bank council member Yves Mersch's warning of slower growth signals that policymakers may not follow through on their threat to raise interest rates.

"We have certainly downside risks to economic activity," Mersch said in an interview in Luxembourg. While inflation risks have also risen, "we're not unaware of mitigation to price developments", he said, citing a stronger euro, near-record oil prices, the cooling US economy and higher credit costs.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/18/2008 page17)