Business

Tuesday August 11, 2009

Foreign business news in brief


NEW YORK: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc is buying corporate debt and securities issued by governments outside the United States as the billionaire investor’s spending on stocks fell to the lowest in more than five years.

Berkshire held about US$11.1bil in foreign government bonds in its insurance units as of June 30, compared with US$9.6bil three months earlier, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing announcing second-quarter results.

Buffett spent US$2.6bil on fixed-maturity securities in the three months ended June 30 compared with US$350mil on stocks. — Bloomberg

LONDON: European and long-haul traffic through airports managed by British operator BAA returned to growth in July while its flagship airport at Heathrow recorded its third busiest month on record.

The number of passengers grew 1.2% in Europe and 4.8% across the long-haul network, excluding North Atlantic routes, the operator majority-owned by Spain’s Grupo Ferrovial said yesterday.

Overall, BAA airports handled 14.5 million passengers, down 2.4% compared to July 2008, following decreases of 5.9% in June and 7.3% in May.

Traffic at Heathrow was up 0.9%. At Gatwick, which debt-laden BAA is under pressure from regulators to sell, passenger numbers fell 4.8%, slowing the rate of decline from the 7.6% registered in June. — Reuters

KARACHI: Pakistan’s largest bank, MCB Bank, will pay around US$90mil to acquire the local operations of the Royal Bank of Scotland, a source with direct knowledge of the deal said yesterday.

The Pakistan sale is part of moves by part-nationalised RBS to sell assets globally as it tries to exit up to 36 countries and focus on its mainly UK core businesses.

Last week, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd agreed to buy some Asian units of RBS for about US$550mil.

MCB Bank, the country’s largest bank with a market value of US$1.4bil, said earlier yesterday that its board had approved the proposed acquisition of RBS Pakistan, subject to regulatory approvals and signing of the share purchase agreement. — Reuters

TOKYO: Japan’s Toshiba Corp said yesterday it will join the Blu-ray Disc Association – its former enemy in a bitter format war – to make blu-ray players by the year-end to tap demand for high-definition home movies.

Toshiba pulled the plug on its HD-DVDs last year, conceding defeat to the Blu-ray camp, led by proponents Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp.

Toshiba, whose digital products segment reported a nearly 65% tumble in profit in the year that ended in March, is trying to raise market share and cut costs as it fights increasing price competition in personal computers and TVs. — Reuters


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