IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Staples lifts bid

Staples Inc, the world's biggest office-supplies retailer, raised its offer for Corporate Express NV to 1.67 billion euros after the Dutch company rejected two takeover attempts and agreed to buy a French rival.

Staples increased its bid by 14 percent to 9.15 euros a share and said yesterday that Corporate Express investors owning 23.3 percent of the company already agreed to sell their shares.

Truckmaker tumbles

Hino Motors Ltd, Japan's largest maker of heavy trucks, fell the most in more than a month in Tokyo trading after the country's truck sales dropped last month.

Hino declined as much as 28 yen, or 3.9 percent, to 691 yen and traded at 701 yen as of the 11 am trading break.

Takeover imminent

Vodafone Group Plc is close to buying Tiscali SpA for 1.6 billion euros, MF said, citing unidentified "sources close to" the world's biggest mobile-phone company.

The offer price will be about 2.8 euros a share, the newspaper said. Vodafone is expected to present its offer within the next 24 hours, the newspaper said. The UK company will benefit from Tiscali's 500 million euros in tax credits, MF said.

Insurer eyes expansion

PZU SA, Poland's largest insurer, may spend 10 billion zloty ($4.6 billion) to acquire competitors in the region, rp.pl reported.

PZU, whose net income totaled 4.7 billion zloty for the last two years, could be buying "aggressively" in the next 12 to 18 months and may not pay a dividend from 2007 profit once the shareholders approve the plan, the Web page of the newspaper Rzeczpospolita said, citing Andrzej Klesyk, the insurer's chief executive officer.

Activity drops

British construction activity dropped last month at its sharpest pace in at least a decade as falling house prices and tight credit took their toll, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply's construction PMI fell to 43.9 in May from 46.1 in April. That was the third consecutive month of decline and weakest reading since the survey began in 1997. Any reading below 50 signals contraction.

K+S climbs

K+S AG rose the most in more than four months in Frankfurt trading after Europe's largest producer of potash used in fertilizers raised its full-year profit forecast 29 percent.

K+S jumped as much as 28.80 euros, or 9.4 percent, to 334 euros, the biggest gain since Jan 24. Earnings before interest and tax will almost quadruple to at least 1.1 billion euros, compared with about 850 million euros projected earlier, the Kassel, Germany-based potash maker said yesterday.

Pirelli expresses interest

Pirelli & C SpA, Europe's third-largest tiremaker, would consider buying the Continental AG division that makes tires for heavy trucks, Handelsblatt said, citing an interview with Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera.

Provera said he wants to expand the Milan-based company's tire business and that purchasing a rival's division that produces tires for commercial vehicles would be particularly "interesting", the German newspaper reported.

Chung stays out of jail

A South Korean court yesterday ruled for a second time that Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo does not have to go to prison, leaving the auto tycoon free to keep running the aggressively expanding automaker.

The Seoul High Court upheld a sentence last year in which it suspended the three-year prison term handed Chung by a lower court. That means the 70-year old executive can avoid time in jail as long as he breaks no laws for five years. Last year, he was convicted of embezzlement and breach of trust.

Agencies

(China Daily 06/04/2008 page16)