IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Big spender

OAO Gazprom, Russia's natural gas exporter, plans 1.52 trillion rubles ($65 billion) in capital expenditure in 2009 and 2010 to help boost production, Vedomosti reported, citing a company bond prospectus.

The monopoly plans to increase spending from 479 billion rubles in 2008 to 669 billion rubles in 2009 and to 850 billion rubles in 2010, Vedomosti reported.

Cocoa purchase

Barry Callebaut AG, the world's largest supplier of bulk chocolate, agreed to buy a 60 percent stake in KL Kepong Cocoa Products Sdn Bhd from Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad to expand in Asia.

KLK Cocoa has yearly sales of about $150 million, Zurich- based Barry Callebaut said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

Indian sale pays off

Cairn Energy Plc, the UK explorer operating on six continents, posted a profit last year after the sale of shares in its Indian subsidiary.

Net income was $1.53 billion, compared with a loss of $97.1 million a year earlier, the Edinburgh-based company said yesterday in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service. Average output declined 19 percent to the equivalent of 19,809 barrels of oil a day.

Tesco drops

Tesco Plc, the United Kingdom's biggest food retailer, fell the most in almost three months in London trading after putting the expansion of its US Fresh & Easy store chain on hold.

Tesco lost as much as 4.6 percent, its biggest drop since Jan 9. The Cheshunt, England-based company is taking three months to let the unit "settle down", Simon Unwins, Fresh & Easy's marketing director, wrote on his blog last week.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/01/2008 page17)