IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Banks hired

Tata Chemicals Ltd, part of India's second-largest business group, hired seven banks to arrange $850 million of loans to fund the purchase of US-based General Chemical Industrial Products Inc, according to anonymous sources.

The Mumbai-based company appointed HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc, ABN Amro Holding NV, Calyon, Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Rabobank Nederland and Bank of Nova Scotia to arrange the loan, which includes $500 million for seven years and $350 million of short-term borrowing, said the sources.

Settlement sought

Siemens AG will begin negotiations with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this month to reach a settlement over bribery allegations, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing unidentified people at the company.

The Munich-based company aims to complete negotiations by the fall of this year, the newspaper said. Europe's largest engineering company declined to comment on the state of negotiations with the agency, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified company spokesman.

GM potato delayed

BASF SE, the world's largest chemicals maker, postponed cultivation of the genetically modified Amflora potato until at least next year after the European Commission failed to rule on its approval.

The European Union's executive body "is violating the EU's own rules" by delaying a decision, Hans Kast, head of BASF's Plant Science said yesterday in a statement. The approval was withheld "apparently for political reasons as no factual reason is given", he said.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/11/2008 page17)