Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words designed+sales. 2 news.

VIETNAM widened the daily trading band for the dong, giving the central bank more scope to slow inflation by allowing the currency to strengthen. The dong can now trade 0.75 percent either side of a rate set by State Bank of Vietnam each day, compared with 0.5 percent previously, according to Dao Xuan Tuan, head of foreign-exchange management at the bank's currency department. Vietnam has allowed the currency to strengthen by 1.3 percent since August 20 as consumer-price inflation accelerated to a 10 percent annual pace in November, the fastest in more than three years. The dong is little changed in the year, following an 11-year run of depreciation designed to make the nation's exports more competitive. Vietnam faces "a dilemma with trade deficits growing and inflation picking up," said Masashi Kurabe, head of the foreign-exchange sales & trading group in Hong Kong at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, part of Japan's largest lender. "The country may be aiming to

FRENCH cookware producer Groupe SEB has completed a partial tender offer for Zhejiang Supor Cookware Co, China's biggest producer of kitchen appliances. The two companies will settle the deal this week, Supor said. Under the deal, SEB will pay 2.3 billion yuan for a maximum of 49.1 million shares at 47 yuan a share from the public to boost its stake in Supor from 30 percent to 52.74 percent. Seb's investment in Supor, worth a total of 327 million euros, will give it access to a sales network across China and localize its production to increase price competitiveness. SEB, which makes Tefal cookware, announced plans to buy 61 percent of Supor last year but the acquisition drew opposition from China's cookware industry amid worries of a monopoly being created. In April, the Ministry of Commerce gave a green light to SEB's plan after a public hearing for more open competition in China's non-strategic industry. Supor's US$15-million factory in Vietnam, designed to produce 7.9