IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Rate cut opposed

European Central Bank council member Klaus Liebscher said the risk of faster inflation means there's no room to cut interest rates.

There are "considerable upside risks to inflation through wage increases, further gains in food and oil prices", Liebscher said in Vienna yesterday. There is no scope to "think about relaxing" monetary policy.

Growth slows

South Africa's economic growth eased to a six-and-a-half-year low in the first quarter of 2008, stung by a crippling power crisis and slowing demand.

Statistics South Africa said yesterday first quarter growth slowed to 2.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted and annualized basis from 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

Porsche files lawsuit

Porsche SE, Volkswagen AG's largest shareholder, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a vote by VW investors that upheld the German state of Lower Saxony's ability to block decisions.

The Porsche lawsuit is the latest move in a wrangle for control of Europe's largest carmaker. At Volkswagen's annual meeting in April, Lower Saxony blocked attempts to scrap its veto rights. Porsche says the state's blocking power is no longer valid after a European Court of Justice ruling last October.

Spending plans

France Telecom SA, Europe's third-biggest telephone company, plans to spend 200 million euros this year on movies and television shows for customers of its Orange mobile-phone, TV and Internet offerings.

"We will spend about 200 million euros on content for the French market in 2008," Chief Financial Officer Gervais Pellissier said during a BFM radio interview yesterday.

Tycoon's offering

Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista's OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA plans to sell as much as 5.59 billion reais ($3.37 billion) of new shares in an initial public offering.

OGX will sell 4.95 million shares for 883 reais to 1,131 reais each locally and overseas, according to a statement yesterday in the Valor Economico newspaper.

Green light for takeover

Freenet AG, a German mobile-phone and Internet operator, said the German cartel office cleared the planned takeover of rival Debitel AG for 1.63 billion euros.

Freenet can now implement the next steps to close the transaction, the Buedelsdorf, Germany-based company said.

Suedzucker down

Suedzucker AG posted a 44 percent drop in full-year operating profit, cut its dividend and forecast little change in earnings as the German company contends with efforts to shrink the sugar industry in the European Union.

Operating profit fell to 233 million euros in the 12 months ending Feb 29, from 419 million euros a year earlier, the Mannheim, Germany-based company said.

'Unjustified drop'

Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, the worst performing stock on Germany's benchmark DAX Index this year, defended the bank's communication of subprime-related writedowns, saying the plunge in shares was unjustified.

"There is no justification for the severity of the reaction of the share price," Chief Executive Officer Georg Funke said.

Russian GDP up

Russia's gross domestic product grew 8.4 percent year-on-year in April, Deputy Minister for Trade and Economic Development Andrei Klepach said yesterday.

In the first four months of this year, the Russian economy grew 8.3 percent, Klepach was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying, adding that the forecast for the whole of 2008 is 7.6 percent.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/28/2008 page17)