Business news with words billion+commission+market. 43 news.

CHINESE insurers' investments rose 60 percent in the first 11 months due to a broader investment scope, the industry watchdog said yesterday. Insurance investments rose to 1.83 trillion yuan (US$245.6 billion) through November, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said yesterday on its Website. China has allowed 20 insurers to invest overseas, mainly in the Hong Kong stock market, under the qualified domestic institutional investor scheme, the top insurance regulator said in November. Insurers including Ping An, China Life, Taikang, Sino Life and American International Assurance have won the go-ahead to invest in the Hong Kong market. The investments are mainly limited to H-shares and red chips. H-shares are the shares of Chinese mainland companies and red chips are shares of overseas-incorporated companies whose main business is derived from the mainland. In July, China raised the limit for domestic insurers to invest in overseas stocks and bonds from five percent to

CHINA'S military enterprises are encouraged to conduct group listings and are expected to raise between 50 billion yuan (US$6.75 billion) and 60 billion yuan from public share sales by the end of 2010, a senior official said. The majority of these enterprises will complete their reform to turn into shareholding companies in five years, which paves the way to trade shares publicly, said Wu Fenglai, head of the Reform Department under China's Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense. In his article published yesterday in the China Securities Journal, Wu noted that military enterprises, except wholly state-owned ones, welcome foreign investment. Depending on their influence in national security, the country's military enterprises are divided into wholly state-owned, state-controlled and state-invested. "Most of China's military enterprises are allowed to source funds from the capital market and foreign investors," said Wu. China issued a new

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

WITH US antitrust clearance for its DoubleClick purchase, Google's focus now turns to European regulators, who are expected to be more critical of the top search engine linking up with a market leader in online advertising. The proposed US$3.1-billion transaction, which is strongly opposed by privacy advocates, cannot be completed without approval from the European Commission, whose review deadline is April 2. The Federal Trade Commission said that the deal would not significantly lessen competition in the online advertising market, rebuffing complaints from Microsoft Corp and AT&T Inc that it would give Google a dominant position. "The FTC's strong support sends a clear message - this acquisition poses no risk to competition and will benefit consumers," Eric Schmidt, Google Inc's chief executive, said. "We hope that the European Commission will soon reach the same conclusion." The European Commission declined to comment on the FTC's decision, spokesman

The Federal Trade Commission approved Google's proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, clearing the way for what competitors say will be a dominating presence in the online-advertising market.

LEHMAN Brothers Holdings Inc awarded Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld US$35 million in stock for 2007 after the largest US underwriter of mortgage bonds reported limited losses from the collapse of the subprime market. Fuld, 61, received 551,442 units of restricted stock, valued at US$35 million as of the December 7 grant date, according to a filing yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg News reported. The payout is four percent more than a year ago. Lehman probably will report record earnings of US$4.1 billion this year, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The profit increase of three percent compares with estimated declines for New York-based securities firms Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co and Bear Stearns Cos. "Those leaders who've managed to steer their companies clear of the problems during these really difficult times should be rewarded handsomely," said John Challenger, head of the Chicago recruiting firm Challenger,

It was a hot, sticky day in Jakarta, especially for visiting officials of Singapore's state-owned Temasek Holdings. They sweated for nearly four hours on Nov. 19, as Indonesia's competition commission completed its six-month probe into the country's mobile-phone sector, where Singapore companies own major stakes in two operators that between them control 85 percent of a $6 billion market.

CHINA has rejected an application by American International Group Inc to turn its Shanghai life insurance branch into a wholly owned subsidiary, the top insurance regulator said yesterday. AIG's American International Assurance unit has applied to transform its Shanghai branch into a subsidiary, which "actually" equals setting up a wholly owned life insurer and is against Chinese regulations, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said yesterday on its Website. The attempt by the world's biggest insurer contravenes China's World Trade Organization agreements - overseas life insurers can only set up joint-venture life insurance business in China and can own no more than 50 percent. Legal barriers The plan has "legal barriers" and won't be approved, the regulator said. AIA was not available for immediate comment yesterday. AIA is one of the first overseas life insurers to tap the Chinese market. Its premiums topped 7.02 billion yuan (US$949 million) at

CITIC Securities Co, Asia's biggest brokerage by market value, said its US$1-billion cross-investment in Bear Stearns Cos has the support of the nation's stock market regulator. The China Securities Regulatory Commission "supports the cross-investment in principal," Citic Securities Chairman Wang Dongming told investors at a shareholder meeting in Beijing yesterday. "We certainly hope to speed up the process and start the due diligence work with Bear Stearns."

CHINA'S proposed sale of the latest batch of special treasury bonds next week won't largely affect short-term liquidity or dampen stock-market performance, industry analysts said yesterday. The Ministry of Finance said it will sell 750 billion yuan (US$100 billion) of 15-year special treasury bonds to the central bank via the Agricultural Bank of China next Tuesday to raise capital for its state investment fund. Analysts said the central bank may gradually use the special bonds as collateral for repurchase deals with commercial banks to soak up excess liquidity. The sale may help the Agricultural Bank of China earn commission fees to prepare it for an initial public offering next year, they said. This batch of special treasury bonds, to be sold to institutional investors on the interbank market at a coupon rate of 4.45 percent, is part of the ministry's plan to issue 1.55 trillion yuan of special debt this year. In August, China announced the sale of 600 billion yuan in

CHINA'S proposed sale of the latest batch of special treasury bonds next week won't largely affect short-term liquidity or damp the nation's stock markets, industry analysts said today. China's Ministry of Finance said that it will sell 750 billion yuan (US$100 billion) of 15-year special treasury bonds on Tuesday to the central bank via Agricultural Bank of China. The money will be used for the ministry's state investment fund. Industry analysts noted that the central bank may gradually use the special bonds as collateral for repurchase deals with commercial banks to soak up excess liquidity. The sale may help Agricultural Bank of China earn a certain amount of commission fees to prepare the lender for an initial public offering next year, they said. This batch of special treasury bonds, to be sold to institutional investors on the interbank market at a coupon rate of 4.45 percent, is part of the ministry's plan to issue 1.55-trillion-yuan in special debt this year. In

PING An Insurance (Group) Co has received regulatory approval to invest as much as 15 percent of total assets overseas, the insurer said yesterday. The Shenzhen-based insurer has won approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to invest in Hong Kong's stock market and major stake investment projects, Ping An said yesterday in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Ping An reported 441.8 billion yuan (US$59.7 billion) of total assets at the end of last year. The 15-percent cap means Ping An can invest up to 66.27 billion yuan overseas. The regulator last month allowed Ping An to begin buying Hong Kong stocks with up to five percent of its assets in the previous year. China has allowed 20 insurers to invest overseas, mainly in the Hong Kong stock market, under the qualified domestic institutional investors scheme, the top insurance regulator said earlier. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.77 percent to 28,879.59 yesterday. China introduced the QDII program last year

DOMESTIC insurers plan to expand overseas through investment over the long term, but they should ensure they are prepared for global competition, a senior official said in Beijing yesterday. The comments by Yuan Li, the spokesman for China's Insurance Regulatory Commission, followed the sector's first overseas purchase of a global financial institution. Yuan also urged Chinese insurers to take full advantage of domestic opportunities. On Thursday, Ping An announced that it had purchased 4.18 percent of Fortis for 1.81 billion euros (US$2.67 billion), becoming the largest shareholder of the Belgium-based financial institution. Fortis's market capitalization was 48.6 billion euros on October 31, making it one of the top 15 European financial institutions. In another development, Yuan disclosed that the commission had provided an opinion letter to securities authorities on the listing plans of China Pacific Insurance, which will involve one billion yuan-denominated A shares on

THE Chinese joint venture of GMAC, the financing unit of General Motors Corp, has gotten the go-ahead to be the first non-banker in China to issue asset-backed securities, the banking regulator said yesterday. GMAC-SAIC Automotive Finance will sell a pool of auto loans worth 1.995 billion yuan (US$270 million) through Fortune Trust on the interbank bond market before the end of the year, Zhang Xiaojun, deputy general manager and chief finance officer of GMAC-SAIC Automotive Finance, told Shanghai Daily yesterday. GMAC-SAIC Automotive Finance is a joint venture between GMAC, Shanghai Automotive Industry Group Finance Co and Shanghai GM. The company filed its application earlier this year to the People's Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission. The CBRC, the country's banking industry regulator, gave the green light, the Shanghai Bureau of the CBRC said yesterday. The company is now awaiting the central bank's approval, which is expected before the year's end.

Two high-ranking senators Monday told the Federal Trade Commission they were concerned that Google's planned $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick carries "profound and potentially far-reaching" implications for the Internet ad market, and "raises fundamental consumer privacy concerns."

GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc held a bigger proportion of hard-to-value assets at the end of the third quarter than Citigroup Inc and Merrill Lynch & Co, two of the firms hardest hit by subprime mortgage losses. Goldman's Level 3 assets, for which market prices are so scarce that companies use internal models to gauge their value, accounted for 6.9 percent of the New York-based firm's US$1.05 trillion total at the end of August, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Citigroup classified 5.7 percent of its assets as Level 3 on September 30 and Merrill reported 2.5 percent, according to Bloomberg News. Investors have grown wary of banks and brokerages with difficult-to-sell securities on their books, after profits at Citigroup and Merrill were crippled by at least US$19 billion of write-downs, mostly from bonds backed by home loans to borrowers with poor credit histories. While Goldman officials say the firm won't report an "extraordinary" drop in

VISA Inc has filed to raise as much as US$10 billion in the world's largest initial public offering this year. The San Francisco-based company didn't disclose the number of shares or the dollar amount of the offering in a filing on Friday with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg News reported. The amount listed on Friday is a preliminary figure used to calculate the company's registration fee and the eventual sum raised may be different. Visa announced in October it would combine most of its global businesses. Investors have bid up shares of MasterCard Inc, the second-biggest credit-card company behind Visa, almost 400 percent since its IPO in May 2006. Discover Financial Services, which was spun off from Morgan Stanley in July, has dropped 38 percent since its debut. "They're piggybacking off the public market success that MasterCard has enjoyed," said Douglas Ciocca, who helps manage US$1.6 billion at Renaissance Financial Corp in

CHINA'S listed state-owned enterprises should play a key role to guarantee a well-developed capital market and combat securities crime, China's stock watchdog said yesterday. "Listed SOEs should be pillars of China's capital market. They must be independent, disciplined and competitive, serving as role models for other publicly trade companies," said the Website statement, citing Fan Fuchun, deputy chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission. By October, a total of 279 companies controlled by state-owned enterprises had been listed on the market. Their combined value of assets reached 4.01 trillion yuan (US$534.6 billion) with net earnings of 273 billion yuan in the first ten months. The listed SOEs have collected a total of 570 billion yuan from trading their shares on the market. Fan stressed that listed companies should be responsible for the interests of all shareholders, instead of only the biggest shareholder. Companies should safeguard their

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America Corp. said on Friday that dislocations in the market for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) will knock the bank's fourth-quarter results. "It may take more time for the markets to return to a more normal environment with tighter credit spreads and greater liquidity," the bank said in its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bank of America disclosed that it provided more than $15 billion of liquidity support for commercial paper sold by CDOs. A net $9.8 billion of that is mainly backed by subprime residential mortgage securities, it added. The bank also has more than $3 billion of exposure to CDOs through its structuring, warehousing and trading activities, it said in the filing.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said on Friday that some of its subprime-related positions could be hit by turbulent conditions in credit markets in the fourth quarter. "The firm's CDO and subprime mortgage warehouse and trading positions could also be negatively affected by market conditions during the fourth quarter of 2007," the bank said in its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the third quarter, J.P. Morgan noted that it took a $339 million write-down (net of risk management results) on $6.8 billion of collateralized debt obligation (CDO) warehouse and unsold positions.