Business news with words announced+billion. 60 or more news.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Monday announced a $20 billion capital injection into China Development Bank, one of the country's three policy lenders, as part of a long-planned transformation of the state-owned company into a commercial bank.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Merrill Lynch on Monday completed a previously announced deal with Aegon , where it's selling its life insurance unit for $1.25 billion in cash. Aegon's Transamerica companies will continue to supply insurance and investment products, including offering the flagship Merrill Lynch Investor Choice Annuity product through the acquired Merrill Lynch subsidiaries. Merrill Lynch expects to record a gain on sale during the fourth quarter of 2007 and anticipates the transaction to be slightly accretive to earnings per share and to have a positive effect on return on equity in 2008 after redeployment of proceeds. Aegon expects the acquisition to add scale to its existing business and to have a marginally positive effect on earnings per share.

CHINA'S State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced yesterday that outstanding external debt, excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, stood at US$345.7 billion as of the end of September, up 7.03 percent, or US$22.7 billion, compared with the end of 2006. During the period, outstanding medium- and long-term external debt rose 6.23 percent to US$148 billion, while short-term external debt, which accounted for 57 percent of the total, was US$197.7 billion, up 7.64 percent. The statistics showed that China had incurred medium- and long-term foreign debt of US$25.47 billion from January to September, up 55.6 percent, or US$7.65 billion, over the same period last year. During that time, it paid US$14.76 billion of principal and US$2.67 billion of interest on its debt, up 18.33 percent and 44.19 percent from the corresponding period last year, respectively.

South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor announced Friday it would invest more than US$11 billion next year to raise production and upgrade facilities.

Banks on Wall Street and around the world, including in Canada, have announced losses of more than US$70-billion tied to the U.S. subprimemortgage market.

RAMS, which is in the throes of selling its brand and distribution business to Westpac, has announced it has been able to line up enough funding to "roll over" or refinance $3.5 billion of its debt.

Shares of Sallie Mae continued to slide yesterday after the nation's largest student lender announced it will seek up to $2.5 billion of additional capital to shore up its beleaguered balance sheet. The Virginia-based company said in public...

CHINA Merchants Securities increased its stake in Bosera Asset Management to 73 percent in a 6.32-billion-yuan (US$854 million) deal, Bosera said in a statement late on Wednesday. China Merchants paid 130 yuan per share to buy an additional 48 percent of Bosera from Kinghing Trust & Investment Co Ltd. With the deal, China Merchants also set a record for the biggest purchase of a stake in the fund industry. The previous record was set in October by Shanxi Haixin Group when it paid 1.18 billion yuan, or 56.20 yuan per share, to buy a 21-percent stake in Yinhua Fund Management Co Ltd. Kinghing Trust & Investment Co Ltd was shut down in 2006 for violating rules and bad management. The securities regulator announced it would auction Kinghing's shares in Bosera on November 19. "The move shows the ambition of China Merchants to expand and its confidence on the prospect of China's fund industry," said Zhang Qi, an analyst with Haitong Securities Co. "The share price for

JAPAN Tobacco Inc said it spent 102 billion yen (US$893 million) to boost its stake in frozen-food maker Katokichi Co to 93.9 percent. Katokichi stockholders will receive 710 yen a share, a 20-percent premium to the price when the offer was announced on November 22. Once it gains full ownership, Japan Tobacco plans to sell a 49-percent stake in Katokichi to instant-noodle maker Nissin Food Products Co and the three companies will combine their frozen-food units. Japan Tobacco, the nation's biggest cigarette company, is moving into emerging markets and expanding food sales to reduce its reliance on Japan, where the percentage of men that smoke has fallen by half in the past 40 years. The Tokyo-based maker of Camel cigarettes bought Gallaher Group Plc in April to add Russian and European tobacco sales and is reported to be planning a bid for Turkey's state-owned Tekel.

General Motors announced that by 2008, it will source $1 billion worth of auto parts from India each year, according to Dow Jones. This is more than eight times the $120 million the company currently spends on parts manufactured in that country.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Warren Buffett's investment company announced Tuesday it will pay $4.5 billion for 60 percent of Marmon Holdings Inc., a private company of more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses....

Anadarko Petroleum has obtained a $2.2 billion loan from investors to further reduce debt from its $21 billion acquisitions of two competitors in 2006, the company announced Thursday. The move will reduce Anadarko's debt to $12 billion, the level the company wanted to reach after debt surged to $27.8 billion with its acquisitions of Kerr-McGee and Western Gas Resources.

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Kansai Electric Power Co. and Sumitomo Corp. will join forces with Kazakhstan's state-owned Kazatomprom to process uranium ore into nuclear fuel for power generation, according to reports. Japanese firm Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd. will also be involved in the project, which is due to be formally announced in Kazakhstan later Wednesday, the Nikkei business daily reported. Under the agreement, Kanasai Electric and Sumitomo will provide funding to help cover the 70 billion yen ($613 million) to 80 billion yen needed to upgrade a Soviet-era facility in Kazakhstan to enrich uranium ore into a form that can be used in commercial reactors. Kansai Electric and Sumitomo are also to provide expertise in modifying the facility for its new role, the report said. Shares of Sumitomo climbed 1.2% and Kansai Electric Power fell 1.5%.

60% of Marmon goes for $4.5 billion The Pritzker family is Chicago's wealthiest, and Warren Buffett is the country's most famous investor. They knew each other but had never done a deal until Christmas Day, when the Pritzkers announced they would sell 60 percent of their industrial conglomerate, Marmon Holdings Inc., to Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. for $4.5 billion.

Warren Buffett's investment company announced Tuesday it will pay $4.5 billion for 60 percent of Marmon Holdings, a private company of more...

Warren Buffett's investment company announced Tuesday it will pay $4.5 billion for 60 percent of Marmon Holdings Inc., a private company of more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses.

(AP) -- Warren Buffett's investment company announced Tuesday that it will pay $4.5 billion for 60 percent of Marmon Holdings Inc., a private company of more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses. The remaining 40 percent of Marmon "will be acquired through staged acquisitions over a ...

Merrill Lynch announced three deals Monday which will allow the beleaguered bank to raise much needed cash as its new CEO John Thain tries to save the company from the huge losses it incurred after the mortgage market meltdown.

Stock markets moved higher after Merrill Lynch announced a $6.2 billion investment from the Singapore government and a mutual fund manager.

Merrill Lynch & Co, the world's biggest brokerage, agreed to sell most of its commercial finance business to General Electric Co's finance arm for an undisclosed price to free up capital after subprime losses. The sale of Merrill Lynch Capital's corporate, equipment, energy and healthcare finance units is expected to be completed in the first-quarter, the companies said yesterday in a Business Wire statement. The deal will add more than US$10 billion in assets to GE Capital. The transaction is part of New York-based Merrill Lynch's "strategic focus on divesting non-core assets," and will release about US$1.3 billion of capital to be redeployed elsewhere, said Chief Executive Officer John Thain in the statement. Merrill, on October 24, announced US$8.4 billion of writedowns on mortgage-related investments and corporate loans. The firm, which ousted Stan O'Neal as CEO in October, may report an additional US$8.6-billion writedown for the fourth quarter, according to David