IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Advanced talks

Vodafone Group Plc, the world's biggest mobile-phone company, said its Verizon Wireless unit is in advanced talks to buy wireless provider Alltel Corp.

"There is no assurance that a transaction will be forthcoming," Vodafone said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Newbury, England-based Vodafone has a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless. New York-based Verizon Communications Inc owns the rest.

Staples ups stake

Staples Inc, the world's largest office-supplies retailer, said it bought a 12.3 percent stake in Corporate Express NV, advancing its four-month bid to take over the Dutch rival.

Staples bought more than 22 million shares for 9.15 euros each, the Framingham, Massachusetts-based company said.

UK earnings rise

UK wage negotiators clinched the biggest jump in salary increases since 2006 in the three months through April, as inflation fueled higher pay demands, Incomes Data Services said.

The median salary settlement rose to 3.8 percent from 3.5 percent in the three months through March, the London-based research group said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The reading is based on 130 agreements covering one million workers.

Saudi smelter

Rio Tinto Group expects to produce aluminum from its planned smelter in Saudi Arabia by late 2011 or early 2012, the company's Chief Executive Tom Albanese was cited as saying by Arab News.

The first stage of the project, developed in a joint venture with state-owned Saudi Arabian Mining Co, will produce 740,000 tons of aluminum, Albanese said, according to the newspaper.

Balfour buys Barnhart

Balfour Beatty Plc, Britain's biggest builder, bought the US construction services company Douglas E Barnhart Inc for $116 million in cash to gain education clients in California.

Barnhart, based in San Diego, had operating profit of $17 million on sales of $530 million in the year through September and has an order book of about $1.1 billion, London-based Balfour said.

Johnson Matthey drops

Johnson Matthey Plc, maker of a third of all auto catalysts, posted a 21 percent drop in second-half profit after the gain from a unit sale wasn't repeated.

Net income dropped to 98.1 million pounds in the six months through March 31, from 124.6 million pounds a year earlier. The earnings were calculated by subtracting fiscal first-half numbers from full-year net income reported yesterday.

Job cuts

Telecom Italia will cut 5,000 jobs by 2010, mostly through the merger of the fixed and mobile units, chief executive Franco Bernabe said in an interview published yesterday.

The company cuts are part of a three-year plan to reduce costs by 300 million euros a year and increase efficiency at Italy's dominant telecoms operator.

Mapmaker snapped up

TomTom NV, the Dutch maker of navigation devices, yesterday sealed its 2.8 billion euro takeover of digital mapmaker Tele Atlas NV.

Amsterdam-based TomTom said it has accumulated more than 97 percent of Tele Atlas shares via open market purchases and from shareholders who tendered to TomTom's 30 euros per share offer.

Bank hired

Reliance Communications Ltd hired Deutsche Bank AG to arrange the $14 billion it may need to fund a possible acquisition of South Africa's MTN Group Ltd, Business Standard reported, without saying where it got the information.

Reliance Communications aims to raise about 30 percent of MTN's $45 billion enterprise value, according to the report.

Agencies

(China Daily 06/06/2008 page16)