IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Hunt purchase

XTO Energy Corp agreed to acquire closely held Hunt Petroleum Corp for about $4.2 billion.

Owners of Hunt will get $2.6 billion in cash and about $1.6 billion in XTO stock, the Fort Worth, Texas-based buyer said yesterday in a statement on PR Newswire.

Norilsk falls

OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest producer of nickel and palladium, posted an unexpected decline in its 2007 profit as nickel prices fell in the second half and it purchased Canadian firm LionOre Mining International Ltd.

Net income declined 11 percent to $5.32 billion from $5.97 billion a year earlier, the Moscow-based company said on its website yesterday. Revenue jumped 44 percent to $17.1 billion.

Price hike

Michelin & Cie., the world's second- largest tiremaker, said it will raise prices for truck and bus tires in Asia by as much as 12 percent, citing higher costs.

The increase will be implemented between July and September, Clermont-Ferrand, France-based Michelin said yesterday in a statement on its website.

Plant plan floated

Mitsubishi Corp, Japan's biggest trader, will study building a floating liquefied natural gas plant in Nigeria, holder of the world's seventh-biggest reserves.

The Tokyo-based company will team up with Flex LNG Ltd and Peak Petroleum Industries Nigeria Ltd. to draft details of the project, it said in a statement on its website. It did not say how soon it will complete the feasibility study.

Agencies

(China Daily 06/11/2008 page17)