IN BRIEF (Page 21)

Oil nears $128

Crude oil for June delivery rose as much as $1.48 a barrel, or 1.2 percent, to $127.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at $126.89 at 1:51 pm in London. The contract gained $2.17, or 1.7 percent, to $126.29 on May 16, the highest close since futures trading began in 1983.

The Nymex June contract expires at the end of trading today. The more-widely held July contract was at $127.28 a barrel at 1:18 pm in London.

Hyundai Heavy rises

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, the world's largest shipbuilder, rose the most in four weeks after an index of vessels prices climbed, easing concerns that shipyards would be unable to pass on rising steel costs.

Hyundai Heavy climbed as much as 4 percent to 381,500 won and traded at 379,000 won as of 10:35 am in Seoul. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, the world's third-largest shipyard, rose as much as 4.5 percent to 45,000 won.

Plane's debut

European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co will present its A400M military transport plane on June 26 in Seville, Le Figaro reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

EADS' Airbus SAS planemaking unit said on April 22 the A400M was on target for a planned rollout in June and a first flight this summer after delays that cost it 1.4 billion euros last year. EADS had its first annual loss in five years in 2007 on A400M cost overruns.

Swiss insurer falls

Swiss Life Holding, Switzerland's largest life insurer, fell the most in two months in Zurich trading after analysts at UBS AG cut their recommendation on the stock from to "neutral" from "buy".

Swiss Life fell as much as 2.6 percent in Zurich and traded 2.5 percent, or 7.75 Swiss francs, lower at 301 francs by 10:09 am, trimming the insurer's market value to 10.6 billion francs ($10.1 billion). The company has gained 6.5 percent since the start of the year.

ING's offer

ING Groep NV, the largest Dutch financial-services company, plans to acquire Interhyp AG in an offer valuing the German distributor of home mortgages at 416 million euros ($648 million).

ING will offer 64 euros for each Interhyp share, the Amsterdam-based company said yesterday. The price is 31 percent more than Interhyp's closing price of 49.02 euros on May 16 on the Frankfurt exchange.

Tram line order

Siemens AG, Europe's biggest engineering company, and Germany's second-largest builder Bilfinger Berger AG won a 350 million-euro order to build a tram line in Edinburgh.

Mannheim-based Bilfinger will lead the group building the 19 kilometer line in Scotland's biggest infrastructure project, Munich-based Siemens said yesterday.

Difficulties denied

Alitalia SpA, Italy's state- controlled airline, yesterday denied it will have difficulty in paying salaries in May and June after a leading member of the opposition said the company was out of money.

The chief whip for the Democratic Party in the Chamber of Deputies, Antonello Soro, said that Alitalia would struggle to pay salaries this month and that it wouldn't be able to cover June's at all.

Profit slump likely

Home Depot Inc, the world's largest home-improvement retailer, may say today that profit declined for the seventh straight quarter as consumers were buffeted by the deepest housing slump in at least 25 years.

First-quarter net income, which Home Depot said will include expenses to close stores, may fall 68 percent to $331 million, said Daniel Binder, an analyst at Jefferies & Co.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/20/2008 page21)