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China Investment Corporation (CIC), which has a 10 per cent stake in private equity group Blackstone and invested $5 billion into Morgan Stanley, has pumped $20 billion ($£10 billion) into the China Development Bank to transform it into a commercial lender.

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.

A committee restructuring this country's $33 billion market for non-bank, asset-backed commercial paper has confirmed its financial adviser, JPMorgan Chase & Co., is the foreign bank that will cover any potential shortfall in a $14 billion backup loan central to its proposed retooling plan.

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%.

Wall Street advanced sharply Monday, boosted by news that Merrill Lynch & Co. will receive an investment of up to $6.2 billion from two investment groups. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 100 points. Trading volume was light in Monday's abbreviated session -- a typical occurrence a day ahead of Christmas. Still, with only five trading days remaining in 2007, investors were perhaps looking for any opportunity to tidy up their positions after a year that brought the return of volatility after several years of unusual calm. Merrill Lynch provided the only significant news of the day. The investment firm said it was receiving a widely expected cash infusion from Singapore's government-controlled investment fund, Temasek Holdings, and U.S.-based Davis Selected Advisers. The proceeds were expected to cushion Merrill's mortgage-related writedowns for the fourth quarter. The nation's largest brokerage also said it would sell most of its commercial finance unit to GE Capital. Terms of the deal weren't made public.

WALL Street advanced yesterday, boosted by news that Merrill Lynch & Co will receive an investment of up to US$6.2 billion from two investment groups. Trading volume was light in yesterday's abbreviated session -- a pro forma occurrence a day ahead of Christmas when most stock markets around the world are closed. Still, with only five trading days remaining in 2007, investors will perhaps be looking for any opportunity to tidy up their positions after a year that that brought the return of volatility after several years of unusual calm. Merrill Lynch provided the only significant news of the day. The investment firm said it was receiving a widely expected cash infusion from Singapore's government-controlled investment fund, Temasek Holdings, and US-based Davis Selected Advisers. The proceeds were expected to cushion Merrill's mortgage-related writedowns for the fourth quarter. Merrill also said it would sell most of its commercial finance unit to GE Capital. Terms of the deal

An investor committee working to fix this country's $33-billion market for non-bank asset-backed commercial paper is "virtually certain" that big Canadian banks will chip in their share of a $14-billion credit facility at the heart of a proposed restructuring deal, but has a backup plan - just in case.

CANADA'S non-bank asset-backed commercial paper market will start trading for the first time in four months after a deal was struck between investors holding about C$33 billion (US$33.3 billion) of the short-term debt. The group, led by Toronto lawyer Purdy Crawford, agreed yesterday to swap the commercial paper for longer-term notes, ending a suspension in trading prompted by investor concern about ties to US subprime mortgages. "I am confident that this plan will provide most holders of outstanding commercial paper with the opportunity to receive the full repayment of principal by holding restructured notes to maturity," Crawford said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg News yesterday. The Canadian market for asset-backed commercial paper sold by non-bank dealers ground to a halt in August after Coventree Inc and other trusts failed to renew maturing debt. Banks refused to provide backup financing, freezing the market and putting funds at risk of collapsing, even

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

CHINA Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia's largest refiner, will complete construction of a 12.5-billion-yuan (US$1.7 billion) plant in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao by the end of next month to tap rising fuel demand. The project will help boost the state-controlled refiner's market share, parent China Petrochemical Corp said in its online newsletter Sinopecnews. It didn't say when the plant will start commercial operations.

NANYANG Commercial Bank plans to at least double its network on the Chinese mainland in two years, after it opened its local incorporation yesterday to fully tap the mainland market. The bank said in Shanghai yesterday it would offer unlimited yuan services. The Hong Kong-based bank gained the approval to set up the local incorporation with a registered capital of 2.5 billion yuan (US$341 million) from the China Banking Regulatory Commission on December 4. The local incorporation was set up on December 14. Nanyang Commercial Bank has six branches and one sub-branch on the Chinese mainland in cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian and Haikou. "Network expansion is a key part of the local incorporation's business development," a bank spokesman said. He said the bank would first focus on major cities in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and coastal areas in the geographic expansion. It will also seek opportunities to open outlets in

NANYANG Commercial Bank plans to at least double its network on the Chinese mainland in two years after it opened its local incorporation today. Nanyang Commercial Bank (China) Ltd opened in Shanghai yesterday to offer unlimited yuan services to Chinese. The Hong Kong-based bank gained approval to set up the local incorporation with a registered capital of 2.5 billion yuan (US$341 million) from the China Banking Regulatory Commission on December 4. Nanyang Commercial Bank has six branches and one sub-branch on the Chinese mainland in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian, Haikou and Shanghai. "Network expansion is a key part of the local incorporation's business development," the bank said. The bank will first focus on major cities in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and the coastal area. It will also seek other opportunities in other areas. The bank will focus on personal financial planning products and services in retail banking. In corporate banking,

GE Capital, the financial unit of General Electric Co., said Monday it will acquire the bulk of the Merrill Lynch Capital commercial finance operations, allowing Merrill to redeploy about $1.3 billion into other parts of its business.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - GE Capital, a unit of General Electric Co. on Monday said it agreed to purchase most of Merrill Lynch Capital, Merrill Lynch's wholly-owned middle-market commercial finance business. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition, expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, will add more than $10 billion in assets and $5 billion in commitments to GE Capital Commercial Finance's base of $260 billion. GE Capital said it will buy Merrill Lynch Capital's corporate finance, equipment finance, franchise, energy and healthcare finance units. Merrill Lynch Capital's commercial real estate finance unit is not part of the transaction.

An agreement in principle to rescue about $33-billion worth of short-term debt has been reached, a group of investors working to solve the ills of troubled asset-backed commercial paper said Sunday.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve, working to combat the effects of a severe credit crunch, announced Friday it had auctioned another $20 billion in funds to commercial banks at an interest rate of 4.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Fitch Ratings put Eaton Corp. on Rating Watch Negative Friday after the company said it planned to acquire Moeller Group and Phoenixtec for a total of about $2.8 billion. Fitch currently maintains A ratings on Eaton's issuer default, senior unsecured bank facilities, and senior unsecured debt. The ratings agency also maintains an F1 rating on the company's short-term issuer default and commercial paper. Fitch said Eaton has about $3.1 billion in debt as of Sept. 30. The ratings agency said the negative watch reflects risks of integrating the acquisitions that could put pressure on margin improvement and expected cash flow.

The Federal Reserve, working to combat the effects of a severe credit crunch, announced Friday it had auctioned another $20 billion in funds to commercial banks at an interest rate of 4.67 percent. Fed officials pledged to continue with the auctions "for as long as necessary."

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. insurer Friends Provident has froze its 1.2 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) flagship commercial property fund after a rush for the exit by investors over the past three weeks, The Times (of London) reported, citing a spokesman. Friends' move affects up to 118,000 individual investors in its 24-year-old property fund, which invests in offices and retail developments in areas as diverse as Glasgow, Leadenhall Street in the City of London and Camden Wharf in North London. New Star Asset Management separately marked its property fund down by 8.2% last week, the report added.

The crisis in the commercial property investment market deepened last night as Friends Provident froze its £1.2 billion flagship fund after a rush for the exit by investors over the past three weeks.