IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Possible partnership

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is in contact with potential partners in South Korea, the Wall Street Journal reported, without saying where it got the information.

Alternatives include Korea Development Bank and Woori Financial Group, the newspaper said.

Confidence slides

UK consumer confidence fell to the lowest level since at least 2004 in May as increases in living costs added to gloom about the economy, Nationwide Building Society said.

Nationwide's index of sentiment taken from the responses of 1,000 people declined 1 point to 69, the lowest since the survey began in May 2004, the United Kingdom's fourth-biggest mortgage lender said yesterday.

Fuel price hikes

India's government raised retail fuel prices and reduced taxes to narrow more than $50 billion of losses at refiners, risking fanning inflation that's at a three-and-a-half-year high.

Prices of gasoline, diesel and cooking gas were raised from midnight. Shares of state-run refiners rose after the government scrapped import taxes and said they will receive 946 billion rupees ($22 billion) as compensation for selling fuel below cost.

Slowdown to drag on

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn says the global slowdown will "last", although it won't be "that big or deep", Corriere della Sera newspaper reported, citing Strauss-Kahn.

"We can hope that most of the financial crisis is behind us, but this doesn't mean that there won't be economic consequences," Strauss-Kahn said in a speech at Rome's Luiss University , according to Corriere.

Loan in jeopardy

The European Commission will begin legal proceedings next Wednesday over a 300 million-euro emergency loan from Italy's government to Alitalia SpA, la Repubblica reported, without saying where it got the information.

The commission will "open a procedure for state aid" and ask Italy to suspend the loan because of doubts on its compatibility with European Union rules on such aid, the Italian daily reported.

Target unchanged

BASF SE, the world's biggest chemicals maker, is sticking to its full-year profit and sales forecasts as it expands its business in Asia.

BASF forecast earnings before interest and taxes will increase "slightly", not including any special items, and sales will grow, the Ludwigshafen, Germany-based company said yesterday in a presentation on its website. The forecast doesn't include earnings from any acquisitions, the company said.

Lukoil doubles

OAO Lukoil, Russia's biggest independent oil producer, said first-quarter profit more than doubled as prices for crude and refined products rose.

Net income advanced to $3.16 billion from $1.3 billion a year earlier, the Moscow-based company said yesterday.

Applications fall

Mortgage applications in the United States last week dropped to the lowest level in six years, reflecting less refinancing as interest rates jumped.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications to purchase a home or refinance a loan fell 15 percent to 502.3, the lowest level since April 2002, from 593.3 the prior week.

Coffee purchase

J.M. Smucker Co, the maker of Smucker's jams and Jif peanut butter, will purchase Procter & Gamble Co.'s Folgers coffee unit for $3.3 billion, including debt, to expand its portfolio of food brands in the United States.

Smucker will pay for Folgers with stock and assume $350 million of debt, the companies said yesterday.

Agencies

(China Daily 06/05/2008 page16)