IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Hyundai chief sued

A group of Hyundai Motor Co shareholders filed a civil suit against Chairman Chung Mong-koo yesterday, asking him to compensate South Korea's largest automaker following his conviction for breach of duty.

The shareholders filed the suit in the Seoul Central District Court. They are asking Chung and Vice-Chairman Kim Dong-jin to pay 563.1 billion won ($538 million) to the company, the statement said.

Production plans

Scania AB, the Swedish truckmaker that Volkswagen AG is buying, plans to almost double yearly production to 150,000 vehicles by 2015 as the company enters new markets.

Scania will scale back the manufacturing workforce by 15 percent to 10,000 employees over the period as part of its effort to improve productivity, Chief Executive Officer Leif Oestling told journalists yesterday.

Steelmaker's profit falls

OAO Severstal, Russia's largest steelmaker, said first-quarter profit fell 4.1 percent on higher raw-material costs.

Net income declined to $439 million, or 44 cents a share, from $458 million, or 45 cents, a year earlier, the Cherepovets, Russia-based company said yesterday.

Rival snapped up

Corporate Express NV, the Dutch office supplies distributor that's fending off a hostile takeover bid from Staples Inc, agreed to buy French competitor Lyreco SA for 1.73 billion euros.

Shareholders of Lyreco, whose clients are mostly mid-sized European companies, will get a 29.9 percent stake in Corporate Express, 560 million euros in cash and 340 million euros of vendor loans, the Amsterdam-based company said yesterday.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/22/2008 page16)