IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Vietnam investment

Ford Motor Co, the world's third-largest automaker, said it sold a record number of cars in Vietnam and plans to invest $10 million to expand its car assembly plant in the country to boost production.

The company has invested $100 million in the northern Vietnamese factory and the new investment will increase the plant's annual production by 35 percent to 9,500 vehicles, David Alden, president of Ford in Southeast Asia, said in a speech in Hanoi yesterday.

Possible offer

Videocon Group, India's largest consumer electronics maker, may make an offer to buy Motorola Inc's mobile-phone operations, Chairman Venugopal Dhoot said.

The group, based in Aurangabad, is in the initial stages of evaluating a bid, Dhoot said, declining to comment on financial terms because they haven't been determined yet. A spokeswoman for Motorola, said she wouldn't comment on speculation.

Babcock meet forecasts

Babcock International Group Plc, which maintains the United Kingdom's Royal Navy submarine fleet, said full-year results met company forecasts on orders from the UK navy and a turnaround at its rail unit.

Babcock's rail division, which had a loss of 2.7 million pounds in the first half, "has improved its performance significantly and has traded profitably throughout the second half", the London-based company said yesterday in a Regulatory News Service statement.

Heidelberger falls

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, the world's largest maker of printing machines, fell as much as 12 percent in Frankfurt trading after failing to meet its annual profit and sales targets.

Heidelberger Druck had its steepest drop in almost two months, falling to as low as 14.94 euros. Worse-than-expected orders in its fourth quarter, which ended yesterday, led annual sales to fall about 3 percent from the prior year's 3.8 billion euros, the Heidelberg, Germany-based company said yesterday.

Sales leap

Cisco Systems Inc, profiting from the growing popularity of Internet video, shipped 900 units of its fastest and most expensive network router in the past nine months, as many as it did in the previous three years.

Cisco, the world's biggest maker of networking equipment, introduced the CRS-1 in 2004 to help cable and telephone companies deliver video online. More than 1,800 of the routers had shipped by March of this year, the company said.

Czech plant plans

Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's top automaker, is set to raise money at home to fund building an overseas factory as global financial markets grapple with a credit crunch.

Hyundai will borrow 300 million euros from state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) to help set up a 1.1 billion euro factory in the Czech Republic, officials from the company and the bank said.

U2 contract

Live Nation Inc said it has reached an agreement for a 12-year global contract to handle the merchandising, digital and branding rights as well as the touring of Irish group U2.

Live Nation has been expanding its business model to develop more far-reaching and deeper relationships with artists beyond just handling their touring.

Brewer's expectations

Kirin Holdings Co, Japan's largest brewery, doubled its full-year profit forecast, citing the acquisition of a controlling stake in drugmaker Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co.

Net income is expected to be 127 billion yen ($1.27 billion) for the year ending Dec 31, up from a previous estimate of 57 billion yen, Tokyo-based Kirin said yesterday.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/02/2008 page16)