IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Rules relaxation sought

American International Group Inc Chief Executive Officer Martin Sullivan is seeking to relax accounting rules that forced the world's biggest insurer by assets to write down $11.1 billion on debt securities in the fourth quarter.

AIG should have written off closer to $900 million, based its "stress-test worst-case scenario" for unrealized losses, Sullivan said on the sidelines of an insurance industry conference in Dubai.

Interested in India

AT&T Inc, the biggest US phone company, is "interested" in entering the Indian mobile-phone market.

San Antonio-based AT&T is "aggressive" about expanding in the South Asian country, Asian regional managing director Bernard Yee said.

Earnings expectations

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, said pretax profit will increase this year as vehicle sales reach a record and currency hedging limits the impact of the weak dollar on US revenue.

Profit will gain even with the "major challenges" of the dollar, slower economic growth in the United States and higher raw-material prices, Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer said.

Israeli growth

Israeli economic growth may ease to between 3.5 percent and 3.6 percent this year, the low end of the central bank's official forecast and the slowest pace since 2003, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said.

Inflation is "under control" after surging in the second half of 2007, Fischer said.

Forecast reaffirmed

Yahoo! Inc, the Internet search company that snubbed advances from Microsoft Corp, reaffirmed its forecasts for the first quarter and the year in a bid to prove it can stay independent.

Cash flow may almost double to $3.7 billion in the next three years, Yahoo said in a statement yesterday. On Jan 29, Yahoo predicted first-quarter sales, excluding revenue passed on to partner sites, of up to $1.38 billion this quarter, and annual sales of as much as $5.95 billion.

Lehman slides

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said profit fell 57 percent, less than analysts estimated, a day after the fourth-largest US securities firm lost 19 percent of market value following the fire sale of Bear Stearns Cos.

First-quarter net income declined to $489 million, or 81 cents a share, from $1.15 billion, or $1.96, a year earlier, the New York-based firm said.

'Risky' Merrill

Merrill Lynch & Co "is the riskiest" of the largest remaining US investment banks, while Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has the strongest access to capital, according to Wachovia Corp analyst Douglas Sipkin.

"Going concern fears regarding the investment banks are misguided," Sipkin wrote in a note to investors dated yesterday. The failure of Bear Stearns Cos "was more a management issue than a market issue in our opinion".

Contract secured

BAE Systems Plc will supply about 1,500 mine-resistant vehicles to the US government for $715 million, the Financial Times reported.

The order brings the total value of US contracts for such vehicles from Britain's largest defense contractor to $2.95 billion, the FT said, without saying where it obtained the information.

Mining mergers

Mining-company mergers and acquisitions rose to a record $158.9 billion last year and may reach "astronomical levels" in 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said.

"No company can stand aside in this 'eat or be eaten' environment," Tim Goldsmith, PricewaterhouseCoopers' global mining leader, said.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/19/2008 page16)