Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words economic+shares. 2 news.

CARPETRIGHT Plc, the UK's largest carpet retailer, dropped to a four-year low in London trading after managers led by Chairman Philip Harris scrapped their 630 million-pound (US$1.2 billion) plan to buy the company. The shares fell as much as 11 percent to 785 pence in London, heading for the lowest close since December 15, 2003. They slid 18 percent on December 21 after the Rainham, England-based company said discussions had ceased, citing deteriorating credit markets. The announcement was made about two minutes before trading ended. Turmoil in the credit markets hampered the executives' ability to secure funding, Harris said. Bloomberg News reported the pace of takeovers worldwide had fallen by about a third since the end of the second quarter, with companies such as Virgin Media Inc and Cadbury Schweppes Plc delaying asset sales amid signs economic growth in countries from the US to Britain is ebbing. "The prospects for the group are undiminished given its market leading

CHINA Unicom Ltd, the smaller of the nation's two mobile-phone operators, rose to the highest in Hong Kong trading in almost a month after a report said the country's top economic planning agency supported a breakup of Unicom. The shares gained 3.6 percent to HK$17.36, their best performance since November 30, at the end of trading yesterday. The National Development and Reform Commission said allowing China's fixed-line carriers to acquire Unicom's mobile networks is the most efficient plan for the industry, the Shanghai Securities News said yesterday, citing a research report by the country's top planning body. China, the world's largest mobile-phone market by users, is expected to reorganize the industry by breaking up Unicom into two operators to be run by the fixed-line companies. China Mobile Ltd controls two-thirds of the nation's wireless subscribers and is adding customers at four times the pace of Unicom. "The government is concerned China Mobile is much too