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

Merrill Lynch's sale of two life-insurance units to Dutch insurance and investment-products provider Aegon has closed, with the $1.25 billion pricetag being $50 million less than the two parties agreed to in August.

AFTER missing out on Qantas, David Coe's controversial Allco Finance Group has made the first move to reinvent itself by unveiling a $200 million foundation investor to launch one of four planned specialist funds valued at up to $2 billion.

$1.1 billion deal aids Irish, Canadian units Legg Mason Inc. reported yesterday that it would take a $90 million charge in the fiscal third quarter - and a 15-cent hit to its earnings per share - as the company undertook the biggest bailout by a money manager related to debt sold by structured investment vehicles (SIVs).

SAN FRANCISCO -- Natural-gas futures rose after a government report showed U.S. natural gas inventories fell for a fifth week. Natural-gas futures for February delivery was last up 6.6 cents, or 0.9%, at 7.266 per million British thermal units. U.S. Energy Information Administration reported U.S. natural gas inventories fell 165 billion cubic feet to 3,008 billion cubic feet in the week ending Dec. 21, the lowest level in more than three months. Natural gas inventories have fallen nearly 550 billion cubic feet since the week ending Nov. 16.

Japan Tobacco said Thursday its tender offer for shares of scandal-ridden Katokichi was successful in a deal worth 102.14 billion yen (US$894.4 million; euro621.2 million) that will create Japan's biggest frozen food maker.

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

JEFFREY Bewkes, who takes over as chief executive officer of Time Warner Inc next week, may be measured by how quickly he can dismantle the world's largest media company. Bewkes may spin off the cable-television division and sell the AOL Web and Time Inc magazine units, Gamco Investors Inc fund manager Chris Marangi and National City Bank analyst Daniel Poole told Bloomberg News. The remaining company, anchored by the film studio and cable TV networks, would resemble Viacom Inc and accordingly command higher multiples, Marangi said. Sumner Redstone's Viacom, owner of Paramount Pictures and MTV Networks, trades for nine times projected 2008 earnings before interest, taxes and non-cash expenses, Marangi said. Time Warner, whose assets include Warner Bros, CNN and HBO, trades at seven. "There's nothing special necessarily about being the biggest," Marangi said. Gamco, based in New York, has US$30 billion in assets, including 11.3 million Time Warner shares. "It's

WESTFIELD Group, the world's biggest shopping center owner, scrapped plans to sell A$700 million (US$609 million) of UK and New Zealand assets after failing to find buyers following the slump in the US sub-prime market. The sale of the remaining third of a 530-million-pound (US$1.05 billion) UK Shopping Center Fund has been stopped, Chief Financial Officer Peter Allen said yesterday. The Sydney company also canceled the sale of two shopping centers in New Zealand, he said. Westfield sold stakes in six of its 120 malls this year, including about US$500 million of assets to Centro Properties Group, a mall owner that last week said it may have to offload properties to pay debt. US home loan defaults have pushed up borrowing costs, triggered the failure of at least 70 US mortgage companies and reduced demand for real estate. "If the market remains unstable, and Westfield is not able to sell the properties at the right price, it will be a negative because the company is trying

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.

A flow of more than half a million migrants into the UK is expected to boost the economy next year by £3.6 billion, according to research published today.

BP is preparing to slash its spending on future oil developments in Alaska in response to a $1.5 billion ($£760 million) tax increase imposed by the US state on oil companies.

ABOUT seven billion yuan (US$953 million) was diverted to unauthorized uses by central government departments and their affiliated agencies from January to November, China's chief auditor said yesterday. Li Jinhua, head of the National Audit Office, said his office uncovered the fund abuses after vetting the account books of 56 ministry-level departments and 433 of their immediate subordinates. The chief auditor, however, did not elaborate on how the 6.87 billion yuan had been improperly used. A total of 4.2 billion yuan of the misused funds had been recovered by the end of October, Li said in his report to a national audit work conference in Beijing. Illegal Use Auditors turned over 304 government and Party officials across the country for investigation after discovering their "direct economic responsibilities" over the illegal use of 3.6 billion yuan. The audit of economic responsibilities covered more than 25,000 officials in the first 11 months of the year, Li

GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc, the world's biggest securities firm, bought 230 Park Avenue, New York for US$1.15 billion from a property investment fund owned by Dubai's government. Istithmar World Real Estate sold the property, purchased in November 2005 for US$705 million, to Goldman's Whitehall Fund and Monday Properties, the Dubai-based company said yesterday. Last month, Istithmar sold 280 Park Avenue for US$1.35 billion, according to Bloomberg News. While the company intended to hold the two locations for longer, "market conditions created an unusual opportunity," Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai World, Istithmar's parent, said. Istithmar remains "committed to further continued investment activity throughout the US," he said. Dubai's government is attempting to reduce reliance on the Gulf region's oil wealth and diversify its economy by investing in businesses from clothing retailer Barneys New York to the Port of Dakar in Senegal. Since being

MOBILE phone sales in China are forecast to reach 150 million units in 2007, up 23.1 percent year-on-year, CCID Consulting said yesterday. Sales volume, however, was expected to drop 0.3 percent to 166.1 billion yuan (US$22.66 billion) because more low-end mobile phones were sold during the period. The average price of a mobile in China dropped from 1,408 yuan in 2006 to 1,142 yuan this year. In addition, more than 20 percent of mobiles sold were less than 500 yuan, the CCID said. Li Xuefang, a CCID consultant, cited increased demand for tailored phones by mobile operators and rising low-end mobile users in rural areas as the main reasons for the price drop. Promotions by domestic manufacturers of mid- and low-end mobiles also brought down the general selling price, she added. In the third quarter of 2007, Chinese brand mobiles accounted for a 33.4 percent market share, up from 31.1 percent in the second quarter. CCID also predicted mobile sales, driven by rising low-end

SUNING Appliance Co plans to increase sales to eight billion yuan (US$10.91 billion) next year in Shanghai by opening more medium and big-sized outlets, the vice president of the electronics retailer said yesterday. The Shenzhen-listed company will open more than nine big outlets next year in Shanghai, each of which can generate annual revenue of 200 million yuan to 400 million yuan. It will open four or five smaller outlets that can earn 100 million yuan to 200 million in revenue, said Ling Guosheng, vice president of the Nanjing-based company. The outlets will be mainly set up in Shanghai's southwest or rural areas, where competition is not as fierce as downtown. The company said sales is expected to reach eight billion yuan next year and 15 billion yuan in 2010. "The existing 42 outlets have brought us more than five-billion-yuan in revenue so far this year," Ling said. Suning's revenue in the first nine month of this year reached 2.8 billion yuan, growing 51.68

MACAU'S casino industry will likely see record gross revenues of 83 billion patacas (US$10 billion) this year, an increase of 46.5 percent over 2006, The Macau Post Daily reported yesterday. The casinos' gross receipts were expected to reach 8.1 billion patacas in December, the daily quoted a senior official of Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau as saying. He added that the Las-Vegas-style casino resort MGM Grand Macau, opened on December 18, recorded gross receipts of 51.5 million patacas in its first two days of operations. With the opening of MGM Grand Macau, the SAR now has 28 casinos, including the Macau Palace floating casino that is presently closed for renovation. Gaming taxes collected in the first 11 months of this year exceeded by 34.9 percent those for the whole of 2006. Direct gaming taxes accounted for 71.4 percent of the government's total revenue in this period. Macau, an hour by high-speed ferry from Hong Kong, beat the Las Vegas Strip last

SHANGHAI Forte Investment Management Co Ltd said it will combine forces with Shanghai Vanke Real Estate Co Ltd to jointly develop a mixed-used real estate project in Pudong New Area, its latest effort to expand the company's market share in the city. Forte Investment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Forte Land Co Ltd, will acquire a 40-percent stake in Shanghai Dijie Real Estate Ltd while Shanghai Vanke, a subsidiary of China Vanke Co, the country's largest publicly traded developer, will hold the remainder, Forte Land said in a recent statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. Total consideration of the deal will reach 2.43 billion yuan (US$330.6 million), according to the Forte statement.

UNITED Rentals Inc has agreed to accept a US$100 million breakup fee from Cerberus Capital Management LP, ending a six week battle over whether Cerberus could call off a US$4 billion acquisition of the largest US equipment-rental company. United Rentals rose 4.4 percent in New York trading after a 17 percent decline on December 21, when a Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled that private-equity firm Cerberus had the right to break off the takeover, Bloomberg News reported. United Rentals said it would not appeal and Cerberus said it would pay the fee. Cerberus agreed in July to pay US$34.50 per share for United Rentals' stock and backed out in November. Judge William B. Chandler III ruled last week that United Rentals should have known Cerberus had a right to pull out if it paid the US$100 million fee. "The decision out of Delaware was very clear," said Carl Tobias, a professor with the University of Richmond.

DOMESTIC carriers are anxiously awaiting China Eastern Airlines' shareholder meeting on January 8, as the result will indicate the future direction of the aviation industry. China Eastern and Singapore Airlines have fallen in "bitter love" since they signed a cooperation deal last month. Under the terms of the deal, Singapore Airlines will spend HK$4.7 billion (US$602 million) to buy a 16-percent stake in China Eastern, and its parent Temasek Holdings Pte will buy an 8.3-percent stake for HK$2.5 billion at HK$3.80 a share. China Eastern's parent will buy 1.1 billion new shares for HK$4.18 billion to maintain a majority stake. However, the deal requires approval from minority shareholders, including Air China, once a bidder for China Eastern. Air China, the country's flagship international carrier, hasn't declared whether it will accept or veto the deal. Xia Fulu, analyst of Industrial Securities, said Air China dreams of becoming one of the top 10 carriers in the