Business news with words allow+investment. 39 news.

Bush signed legislation to allow states and local governments to cut investment ties with Sudan because of the violence in Darfur.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda is going to buy 35% of Delta Petroleum for $684 million, or $19 a share, the companies said Monday. The investment is at 23% premium to Friday's close. This transaction will allow Delta Petroleum to accelerate development drilling activities in its core areas, including the Piceance and Paradox Basins. "Under (CEO) Roger (Parker's) leadership, Delta Petroleum has become a very important company in the industry, with valuable resource plays, a strong asset base and well-positioned exploration projects that we believe hold significant growth potential," Tracinda said.

Westar Energy still plans to pursue three wind-power projects, but says an order from state regulators curtailing its potential profits will prevent it from investing in additional wind farms. Westar had hoped regulators would allow it to earn higher profits because of its investment in 295 megawatts of generating capacity from wind farms in three counties. That's enough to power about 88,000 homes. The Kansas Corporation Commission said Thursday that the Topeka-based utility would be allowed to recover up to $282 million in construction costs through its rates. But the commission refused an additional 1 percent increase in the profits Westar can earn from wind energy. Westar had said it would pursue projects for an additional 200 megawatts of wind-generated capacity. But Bill Moore, the utility's president and chief executive, said Friday that those plans are on hold indefinitely.

Merrill Lynch, in an effort to raise cash amid mounting mortgage losses, agreed Monday to sell the majority of its capital finance business to General Electric for an undisclosed amount. The deal will allow Merrill to reallocate about $1.3 billion of capital into other parts of its business, John A. Thain, the investment bank’s chief executive, [...]

The USC Marshall School of Business has received more than $5 million in three contributions through a newly approved type of charitable remainder trust that gives donors the likelihood of much better investment returns while they support the school. While many universities offer charitable remainder trusts, the University of Southern California's new program is one of very few that allows trust principal to be invested in the university's endowment. Traditional remainder trusts don't allow such investments in a university's endowment.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs has been called in to come up with a finance package that would allow a private sector bidder to take over Northern Rock.

Renault's investment in Avtovaz will allow the French car maker to expand rapidly in Russia's growing market.

SHANGHAI Chengtou Corp, a government investment arm for urban construction, will list its real estate and environment businesses valued at more than seven billion yuan (US$933 million) through a back-door listing, its subsidiary said yesterday. Shanghai Raw Water Co Ltd, in which it holds a 46-percent stake, will sell 413.7 million shares to Shanghai Chengtou at 15.61 yuan apiece, and pay an extra seven million yuan in cash for the injection of the assets, according to a document filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Shares of Shanghai Raw Water fell 1.81 percent to 17.91 yuan yesterday. The deal, still pending approval from the securities regulator and its shareholders, will allow injection of Shanghai Chengtou's assets in real estate development and environment treatment valued at 7.18 billion yuan. The environment division builds and operates the residential garbage treatment facilities in downtown Shanghai, including incineration power plants. It has also invested in

RYANAIR Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest discount airline, said it will record a 90-million-euro (US$132 million) writedown against its stake in Aer Lingus Group Plc after a decline in the smaller carrier's share price. Dublin-based Ryanair bought shares of Aer Lingus at about 2.50 euros apiece, Chief Financial Officer Howard Millar told Bloomberg News. The stock reached a 12-month low of 1.90 euros on November 21 and closed at 2.14 euros on Monday. "We probably have a write-off of 90 million euros on our original investment," Millar said in the interview at an airline-industry conference in London. The step will be taken in "the not too distant future," he said, declining to be more specific. Ryanair began building a 29-percent stake in Aer Lingus in September last year as part of a 1.48-billion-euro hostile bid for the carrier, which is also based in Dublin. The takeover was blocked in June by the European Commission, which said a merger would allow Ryanair

Unloading a losing investment before year-end will allow you to offset taxable gains.

South Korea's Ministry of Finance and Economy said it plans to allow Korea Investment to invest in emerging markets and increase the agency's stock-investment limits to help improve its investment returns.

A plan to allow Chinese individuals to invest directly in Hong Kong stocks is still alive, according to a senior Bank of China official

A BIG Chinese currency revaluation would invite speculation and damage growth, said Fan Gang, an adviser to the People's Bank of China. Sharp increases in the yuan's value would trigger "large speculative capital inflows and outflows that will kill China's growth and financial stability," Fan, a member of the central bank's monetary policy committee, said at an investment forum in Seoul yesterday. Officials from the Group of Seven nations have increased pressure on China to allow the yuan to appreciate more and take the burden off other currencies. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said on Sunday that the yuan causes "tensions," Bloomberg News reported. "What would happen after a large - say 40 percent to 50 percent - appreciation of the yuan? Another request in two years?" Fan said. He was referring to United States legislators' calls for bigger gains. Stronger currency The yuan has climbed about 11.5 percent versus the US dollar since

TAIWAN Stock Exchange is preparing for an influx of Chinese mainland investment to boost the value of the island's Taiex index, which has underperformed its Asian benchmark for four of the past five years. "Taiwan will eventually have to open up to the mainland in order to stay competitive and be globalized," Exchange chairman Wu Rong-I, 65, said. Any lifting of trading barriers could instantly boost Taiwan's stocks, given the mainland's US$2.3 trillion in household deposits. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 55 percent in 10 weeks to a record after the mainland said in August it would allow its investors to buy Hong Kong's shares directly. "Opening Taiwan to Chinese mainland investors will allow the island to benefit from the mainland's booming economy and rising appetite for stocks," Albert King, who manages US$10 million as chief investment officer at Prophet Capital Inc in Taipei, told Bloomberg News. "Taiwan shouldn't isolate itself from the

CHINA has issued rules governing its pension funds, paving the way to allow more select fund managers and financial institutions to help manage the nation's 90 billion yuan (US$12 billion) of corporate pensions. Life insurers and pension firms approved by China's insurance regulator may offer pension insurance products nationwide, according to a statement posted on the watchdog's Website yesterday. Also pension firms may help manage company pension plans nationally. The rules take effect on January 1. The government is opening China's pension market to professional money managers, hoping to boost returns while the nation dismantles its cradle-to-grave welfare system. China will soon issue 20 licenses to select fund managers and financial institutions to help manage company pensions, a Labor Ministry official said in September. Insurance companies must disclose the investment risk of their pension products in writing to potential clients, according to the new rules. Pension funds

I'm in a bit of a quandary, to be honest. I don't know what to do with my Barclays Bank shares. Allow me to share the full shame of this investment decision with you. It's therapeutic, for me at least.

CHINA'S government should allow foreign private equity firms to set up yuan-denominated funds to increase the sources of capital for mergers and acquisitions in the country, said the central bank's deputy governor. The world's fourth-largest economy, with more than US$1.43 trillion in foreign-currency reserves and 38.3 trillion yuan (US$5.26 trillion) in household and corporate savings, needs international funds to help train local bankers on managing large pools of money, said the People's Bank of China's Deputy Governor Wu Xiaoling. "China no longer lacks money but we need expertise in investment and management," she said at a conference yesterday in Beijing. "Foreign participation is advantageous for developing the local talent in equity investments." The Chinese government paid US$3 billion in May for a non-voting stake in New York-based Blackstone Group LP, part of a move to put the world's largest reserves of foreign currencies into higher-yielding

HONG Kong shares tumbled today on disappointment over a delay in a plan to allow mainland Chinese to invest in the Hong Kong stock market. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1,526.02 points, or five percent, to close at 28,942.32. Analysts said the trigger was a reported comment by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that indicated a plan to allow mainland Chinese to invest in Hong Kong could be delayed. The blue chip index has shot up 40 percent since August 20, when China's central government announced the direct investment scheme. A timetable for the scheme's introduction was never set. On Saturday, Wen said Beijing needed to study the impact of the scheme on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese markets and create a law to regulate money flowing out of the mainland before it could go ahead. Analysts had warned that Hong Kong's market was readying for a correction after it hit record highs above 30,000 last week. Money has been pouring into the market to snap up Hong Kong-listed

Some new sectors in which the commerce ministry has proposed to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) are credit information companies and commodity exchanges. The ministry is in favour of allowing up to 49 per cent FDI proposed in both these sectors.

AGRICULTURAL Bank of China, operator of the country's biggest bank network, plans to expand into private wealth management and investment banking to broaden its sources of income. The bank, which has 25,000 outlets, will introduce a basket of tailor-made products, including financial futures, mutual funds and programs that allow qualified domestic investors to buy stocks abroad, President Xiang Junbo told a weekend conference in Beijing.