IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Russian purchase

PepsiCo and the Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) said on yesterday they have agreed to buy 75.53 percent of the juice business of Lebedyansky, Russia's leading juice producer, for $1.4 billion.

The stake, which comprises shares held by Lebedyansky's four individual shareholders, will be split, with PepsiCo getting 75 percent and PBG 25 percent, the firms said in a joint statement.

Solitary offer

Somerfield Plc, the UK food retailer owned by investors including Robert Tchenguiz, may not be sold after the company received only one takeover offer by the March 14 cutoff date, the London-based Times said.

Co-operative Group, which operates more than 2,200 stores in the United Kingdom, was the only company to table an offer for Somerfield, though Wal-Mart Stores Inc's Asda unit may be considering a bid, the Times said, citing an unidentified person close to the negotiations.

Family affair

Silvio Berlusconi, favored to win Italy's election next month, wants his children to join a bidding group for state-controlled airline Alitalia SpA, Ansa reported, citing comments by the former premier.

A rival offer led by domestic carrier Air One SpA could be financed by banks including Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and "there could even be my children" among the investors, Berlusconi was quoted as saying by the news agency.

Bagmaker's earnings

Hermes International SCA, the Paris-based maker of Kelly and Birkin handbags, said profit increased 7.5 percent last year after it expanded its store network and introduced Kelly Caleche perfume.

Net income rose to 288 million euros from 268 million euros in 2006, Hermes said in a statement in Les Echos newspaper. That beat the 277 million-euro average of 11 analyst compiled by Bloomberg. The company said it will raise its 2007 dividend 5 percent to 1 euro a share.

Mine acquisitions

Lihir Gold Ltd, the second-largest Sydney-traded producer of the metal, agreed to buy Equigold NL for A$1 billion ($913 million), adding mines in Africa and Australia.

The all-stock offer values Perth-based Equigold at A$4.75 a share, 11 percent more than Wednesday's closing price. The takeover will boost Port Moresby-based Lihir's reserves almost 10 percent.

BP Moscow raid

BP Plc, Europe's second-largest oil company, had its Moscow offices raided by police investigating a unit bought out by the company's Russian venture in 2003.

Officials visited BP's Moscow office late on Wednesday, after earlier raiding the building of its OAO TNK-BP venture, the Interior Ministry said. Roddy Kennedy, a spokesman at BP's London head office, yesterday confirmed investigators had been at the Moscow office. He declined to comment further on the raid.

Legal bid fails

Qualcomm Inc, the world's biggest maker of chips for mobile phones, lost a bid to delay a ban on sales of products that infringe Broadcom Corp patents while it appeals the infringement verdict.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal District denied Qualcomm's request for a delay because the company hadn't proved that its appeal is likely to succeed, according to the March 18 order.

Indian sale

Time Warner Inc's AOL is close to selling its Bangalore call center to India's Essar group for about $100 million in an all-cash deal, the Times of India reported yesterday.

The newspaper said AOL was likely to make an announcement as early as today, quoting sources close to the deal. "We are not aware of any such move," the paper quoted AOL's call centre and back office operations Vice-President Rajiv Ahuja as saying.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/21/2008 page16)