IN BRIEF (Page 9)

Alibaba open to sovereign sale

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma said China's biggest e-commerce provider is prepared to sell a stake to sovereign wealth firms to fund its buyback of shares from Yahoo Inc.

Alibaba is open to investments from firms such as China Investment Corp and Temasek Holdings Pte, as long as the ownership structure is not dominated by one or two large shareholders, said Ma.

Greentown to sell shares

Greentown China Holdings Ltd, the mainland developer that has been divesting assets to raise cash, said it will sell HK$5.1 billion ($657 million) of shares and convertible securities to Wharf Holdings Ltd.

Greentown will offer 490 million new shares at HK$5.20 each to the Hong Kong landlord as well as issue HK$2.6 billion of convertible notes, the developer based in Hangzhou said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.

Refinery run rate falls

Refinery utilization at China's biggest plants fell 4.2 percentage points from two weeks ago as some refineries entered maintenance amid "high" oil-product stockpiles, Oilchem.net reported.

The run rate averaged 82.1 percent of capacity as of Thursday, the Shandong-based industry website said in a statement on Friday.

The estimate is based on a survey of 35 plants with a processing ability of about 7.3 million barrels a day, or 71 percent of the nation's total.

Ikea mulls move into India

Ikea Group, the Swedish seller of sofas, bookshelves and cutlery, will consider entering India after policy clarity.

The company is watching legislative developments in India to weigh a potential entry, Chief Executive Officer Mikael Ohlsson said in an interview in Shanghai. In China, sales are expected to rise by at least 20 percent this year, he said.

Spain poised to request bailout

Spain is poised to become the fourth of the 17 euro-area countries to require emergency assistance as the currency bloc's finance chiefs plan weekend talks on a potential aid request to shore up the nation's lenders.

A bid for help may come as soon as Saturday when euro finance ministers hold a conference call, said a German government official and a European Union aide, each of whom declined to be identified because the matter is confidential.

Agencies - China Daily

(China Daily 06/09/2012 page9)