Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words firm+management. 6 news.

ASIAN stocks rose for a second day, led by electronics makers, after consumer spending increased more than forecast in the United States, the region's biggest export market. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, maker of iPods for Apple Inc, and Samsung Electronics Co climbed to the highest in more than a week. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced the most in three weeks last Friday after the report on November spending eased concern about recession in the world's biggest economy. "US shares showed firm gains, and we're seeing the influence in shares today (yesterday)," said Kim Jae Dong, who oversees the equivalent of US$8.6 billion at Korea Investment Trust Management Co in Seoul. BHP Billiton Ltd led an increase among miners after metals prices climbed, and a UK regulator set a deadline for a formal takeover bid for Rio Tinto Group. The MSCI Asia Pacific, excluding Japan Index, rose two percent to 524.1 as of 3:38pm in Hong Kong, with all 10 industry groups climbing.

THE management of a second batch of power generating assets owned by State Grid Corp of China has been transferred to electricity producers, paving way for an eventual sale and making the firm a pure distributor as part of an industry reform. As of Sunday, the power-producing companies are responsible for safety operations and management of eight power plants in which State Grid owned a combined equity generating capacity of 6.47 gigawatts. The State Electricity Regulatory Commission said yesterday this marks the completion of the "main work" in the asset disposal. Other areas still to be done include deal signing, transaction and registration. State Grid, China's dominant power distributor, retained certain generating assets in 2002 during the breakup of the former State Power Corp into five national power producers and two grid operators. It had completed the sale of combined 10.8GW in the first phase of the sale in May to 31 companies, raising 18.7 billion yuan

A Citigroup analyst left a lump of coal for Och-Ziff Capital Management, the hedge fund that went public last month. The analyst, Prashant Bhatia, began covering the fund with a “hold” rating, writing in his research note that Och-Ziff might be facing headwinds for the forseeable future. For Mr. Bhatia — who acknowledges that his firm [...]

United Rentals said on Monday that it will not appeal a Delaware judge’s ruling Friday that Cerberus Capital Management cannot be forced to complete its $4 billion buyout of the rental equipment operator. United Rentals said that it will terminate the deal and ask the private equity firm to pay the $100 million breakup fee stipulated [...]

The latest from the IT giant firm will offer next-generation automated tools such as mobile billing and smart supply chain management.

TWO Wests and Elliott, a specialist manufacturer and supplier of mail order garden hardware and accessories, has been acquired in a management buy-out.