IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Builder's expectations

German builder Hochtief said yesterday that it expects its 2008 net profit and sales to rise compared to 2007.

Hochtief's Construction Services Europe business, the company's German unit, will grow profitably in the medium term after posting a loss in 2007, it added.

Battery shortage

Dell Inc said the personal-computer industry was experiencing a shortage of laptop batteries partly because of a recent fire at a major supplier, but that the company was working with other suppliers to limit any price increases.

Dell, the world's second-largest PC maker after Hewlett-Packard Co , also said prices of its separately sold batteries used as replacements or for surplus power had gone up because of the shortage caused partly by the March 3 fire at LG Chem's Ochang plant in South Korea.

Religare climbs

Religare Enterprises Ltd, controlled by the Indian billionaire Singh brothers, rose in Mumbai trading after a newspaper reported it may buy Hichens, Harrison & Co Plc, London's oldest firm of stockbrokers.

Religare advanced 2.6 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The Indian financial services company may agree this weekend to pay about $100 million for the firm, the Economic Times reported yesterday, without saying where it obtained the information.

Berlusconi wants Intesa

Silvio Berlusconi, frontrunner to become the Italian prime minister in April elections, wants Intesa Sanpaolo SpA to lead an Italian bid for Alitalia SpA, la Repubblica newspaper reported without saying where it got the information.

Berlusconi is seeking to combine Italy's second-biggest bank with Carlo Toto's Air One SpA and possibly with an Italian investment fund led by Vito Gamberale and partially owned by state-controlled lender Cassa Depositi & Presiti SpA, Repubblica said.

Sainsbury up

UK supermarket retailer J. Sainsbury reported a 4.1 percent rise in like-for-like sales excluding fuel in the fourth quarter, above expectations, and said it saw "strong growth" in sales of non-food items.

Sainsbury's, the United Kingdom's third largest grocery retailer by market share, added that the market remained competitive.

Oriel purchase

Russian mining and metals firm Mechel OAO said yesterday it had agreed to buy United Kingdom-based chrome and nickel miner Oriel Resources Plc for 749 million pounds in cash.

Mechel, Russia's biggest producer of coking coal, said it would pay 219.86 cents per Oriel share, equivalent to 109.97 pence based on Tuesday's exchange rates.

Possible acquisitions

The general director of Russian airline Aeroflot reiterated in a newspaper interview published yesterday that Aeroflot was interested in buying European airlines.

"We are interested in buying a company based in Europe," Aeroflot's Valery Okulov told La Tribune. Okulov said Aeroflot remained interested in Serbia's JAT Airways and in Czech Airlines.

Vitamin firm boosted

Royal DSM NV, the world's largest maker of vitamins, surged the most in eight years in Amsterdam trading after raising its full-year earnings target.

DSM added 2.60 euros, or 9.3 percent, the biggest jump since Feb 23, 2000. The company forecast an increase in full-year operating profit after previously saying the figure would only approach last year's total of 823 million euros. Prices continued to increase in the first quarter, the Heerlen, Netherlands-based company said yesterday.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/27/2008 page16)