IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Macarthur rises

Macarthur Coal Ltd, supplier of 35 percent of global export demand for pulverized coal, rose in Sydney trading by the most since becoming a public company in 2001 after it received a takeover approach.

The Brisbane-based company jumped by 15 percent on the Australian Stock Exchange after saying a third party had approached it and the company's major shareholders. There has been no formal offer from the group and discussions are incomplete, Macarthur Coal said.

Heading for profit

Tiger Airways Pte, the budget carrier partly owned by Singapore Airlines Ltd, is set for its first annual profit since starting in 2004, bolstered by rising demand for air travel in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Revenue climbed 82 percent in the 12 months ended March from the year before, as it carried 50 percent more passengers, Chief Executive Officer Tony Davis said at a press briefing in Singapore yesterday.

Indian venture

Daimler AG, the world's largest truckmaker, and India's Hero Group will invest 700 million euros in the next five years in a joint venture that will start making trucks by 2010.

Daimler Hero Motor Corp, as the venture is known, will initially build trucks for the Indian market, with export production to follow, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler and New Delhi-based Hero said in a release yesterday in the Indian capital.

'No sale'

Bic SA, the world's biggest maker of disposable pens, doesn't plan to sell any units, such as the razor operations, after reporting a 39 percent drop in first-quarter profit, Chief Executive Officer Mario Guevara told Les Echos.

Guevara blamed the US slowdown, a reduction of inventories by customers and higher marketing costs for the drop in profit. He predicted marketing would improve sales.

Possible purchase

Assicurazioni Generali SpA may consider buying Axa SA if the market value of the French insurer falls 10 percent and its own rises further, la Repubblica reported, without saying where it got the information.

Allianz SE might challenge an eventual bid for Axa by Generali, the weekly economic supplement of la Repubblica reported.

Satyam climbs

Satyam Computer Services Ltd, India's fourth-largest software services provider, reported profit rose 19 percent in the fourth quarter after the company won more software orders.

Net income rose to 4.67 billion rupees ($117 million) in the three months ended March 31, from 3.94 billion rupees a year earlier, Hyderabad-based Satyam said in a statement yesterday. Sales climbed 32 percent to 24.4 billion rupees.

Profitable expansion

Iberdrola SA, Spain's second-largest electricity producer, said first-quarter operating profit jumped 66 percent after it expanded abroad and higher power prices at home countered dwindling domestic output.

Earnings before interest and tax climbed to 1.32 billion euros from 915 million euros a year earlier, Bilbao-based Iberdrola said yesterday in a filing to stock-market regulators.

Bid scrapped

US private equity firm J.C. Flowers said yesterday that it was abandoning its 3.5 billion pound bid to acquire Friends Provident PLC.

Shares in the UK insurer dropped 2.4 percent to 117.7 pence following the announcement. Friends Provident management had refused to negotiate with J.C. Flowers and claimed that the bid significantly undervalued the company.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/22/2008 page16)