Business news for Sun, 23 Dec 2007 & with words sales+unit. 2 news.

RANK Group Ltd, owned by New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart, has agreed to buy Alcoa Inc's packaging and consumer businesses for US$2.7 billion in cash to expand in the United States. Alcoa expects to sell the consumer and packaging businesses, which last year generated 10 percent of sales and three percent of after-tax operating income, by the end of the March, the company said. Hart, 52, will gain control of units, including Reynolds Wrap foil in the acquisition. Rank Group, based in Auckland, has made about US$7 billion of acquisitions over two years in the US, New Zealand and Europe to become the world's second-largest drink-carton maker. Last year, Hart bought International Paper Co's beverage-packaging unit for US$500 million and Neuhausen, Switzerland-based SIG Holding AG for US$2 billion. "He's certainly building quite a packaging empire," Stephen Walker, principal of Walker Capital Management Ltd in Auckland, told Bloomberg News. "This extends the

MOST listed Chinese auto makers powered to better-than-expected profit this year on growing sales, and analysts forecast that they will drive investors to higher profit next year. Shanghai Automotive Co Ltd, the listed unit of China's biggest car maker, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, reported its net profit more than tripled to 3.8 billion yuan (US$513 million) for the first three quarters of this year. Sales rocketed more than 21 times to 76 billion yuan. Shanghai Auto's share price soared more than 170 percent from 8.3 yuan at the start of the year to 26.07 yuan at the close last Friday. Its shares reaped harvest from the car maker selling additional shares to investors last year to expand its core business from auto parts to car production by merging assets in its two joint ventures with General Motors Corp and Volkswagen AG. SAIC sold over 840,000 units in the first half. Net profit at Beiqi Foton, China's largest light vehicle producer, powered 92 percent to 285