IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Earnings advance

Visa Inc, the world's largest credit and debit card processor, said its profit rose 28 percent in the first three months of the year as customers around the world charged more to their cards.

Cardholder spending outside the United States grew particularly quickly, as more people in developing markets adopted credit and debit cards over cash.

Share sale

HBOS Plc, the United Kingdom's biggest mortgage lender, plans to raise 4 billion pounds in a share sale to boost capital depleted by writedowns and a slowing mortgage market.

The bank plans to offer two new shares for every five outstanding at 275 pence apiece, the Edinburgh-based company said yesterday in a statement. HBOS marked down an additional 2.8 billion pounds of assets this year and cut its dividend ratio to 40 percent of earnings, it said.

Insurer falls

Allianz SE, Europe's biggest insurer, said first-quarter profit fell 66 percent after writedowns at its Dresdner Bank unit related to the credit- market collapse.

Net income fell to about 1.1 billion euros from 3.2 billion euros a year earlier, the Munich-based insurer said yesterday.

Chairman passes away

Alliance & Leicester Plc, the UK lender to companies and home owners, said Chairman Derek Higgs (above) died suddenly at the age of 64.

Higgs, who was appointed chairman on Oct 28, 2005, was taken ill on Monday and died in a London hospital, the Leicester, England-based company said in a statement yesterday.

Rice drops

Rice futures in Chicago plunged the most in three weeks after a government report showed planting of the US crop accelerated last week, easing concern that global demand will outstrip supply.

Rough rice for July delivery fell as much as 74.5 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $22.935 per 100 pounds in after-hours electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade and stood at $23.045 at 2:17 pm Singapore time.

BMW puts on brakes

Luxury automaker BMW AG said yesterday that its first-quarter profit fell 17 percent because of a one-time charge on risk provisions to better insulate the company from lower used-car prices and the risk of defaults on loans for leased cars in the United States.

The Munich-based company, whose brands include BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce, earned 487 million euros in the January-March period compared with 587 million euros a year earlier.

Loss widens

Metro AG, Germany's largest retailer, said its first-quarter loss widened because of exchange-rate movements that affected euro-denominated loans.

The net loss was 4 million euros, up from 1 million euros a year earlier, the Dusseldorf, Germany-based owner of Real superstores and the Media Markt electronics chain said yesterday.

Tiremaker tumbles

Michelin & Cie fell the most in almost 10 years in Paris trading after the world's second-largest tiremaker said earnings may decline this year and investment banks including Citigroup Inc downgraded the shares.

Michelin dropped as much as 6.65 euros, or 10 percent, to 60.10 euros in the biggest plunge since Sept 15, 1998, and was down 8.9 percent as of 10:31 am in Paris.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/30/2008 page16)