Business news for Tue, 25 Dec 2007. 391 news.

Warren E. Buffett agreed on Tuesday to buy a 60 percent stake in Marmon Holdings, the industrial holding firm owned by the wealthy Pritzker family, for $4.5 billion with the goal of eventually owning the entire firm. As part of the deal, Mr. Buffett, through his Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle, will gradually increase his stake in [...]

The family-run manufacturing plant has expanded its workforce by two thirds – and the order backlog is still triple that of last year.

Reuters - Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N), the conglomerate headed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, said on Tuesday it planned to buy 60 percent of manufacturing and services group Marmon Holdings Inc. for $4.5 billion.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc , the conglomerate headed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, said on Tuesday it planned to buy 60 percent of manufacturing and services group Marmon Holdings Inc. for $4.5 billion.

China KongFi Textile Co Ltd (KongFiTex) successfully developed natural original bamboo fiber, original bamboo yarn and original bamboo series.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's drive to woo investment is losing traction, as efforts to get rid of red tape and inept bureaucrats falter, threatening to put it further behind neighboring Singapore.

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Berkshire Hathaway and Marmon Holdings announced Tuesday that Berkshire will purchase 60% of Marmon Holdings, a private company owned by trusts benefiting members of the Pritzker Family of Chicago. Berkshire will put up $4.5 bln for the stake and will acquire the remaining 40% through staged acquisitions over a five to six year period, to be based on future earnings. Marmon will make a substantial distribution of cash and assets to shareholders prior to the expected closing in the first quarter of 2008. The Marmon Group is an international association of more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses.

SHENZHEN Ping An Bank Co will team up with another 4,000 convenient stores in Shanghai at the end of next year to facilitate credit card payments, the bank said yesterday. The bank has already tied up with more than 1,000 convenient stores from Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Co to Alldays convenient stores to NGS Supermarket in the city.

TIANJIN airport has completed its largest expansion project to cater to the needs of next year's Olympic Games, airport sources said yesterday. The new terminal building is five times larger than the old one and is able to accommodate 10 million passenger arrivals and departures annually, the sources said. More than 300,000 officials, athletes and visitors for next August's Games are expected to travel via the airport.

CHINA Direct Broadcast Satellite Company, the country's sole satellite conglomerate, has started operations, the company said in Beijing yesterday, according to Xinhua. China DBSAT was jointly established by China Satellite Communications Corporation, Sino Satellite Communications Company and China Orient Telecommunications Satellite Company. China DBSAT now operates and manages four geo-stationary satellites.

SICHUAN Changhong Electrical Co acquired a controlling stake in Huayi Compressor Co through an auction on Monday to become the compressor maker's biggest shareholder. The country's second-largest television maker paid 234 million yuan (US$32 million) for 29.92 percent stake in Jiangxi-based Huayi which produces compressors for air conditioners and refrigerators, it said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday.

CHINA'S tax revenues are expected to surpass 4.9 trillion yuan (US$668.8 billion) in 2007, up 30 percent year on year, the country's top tax official said yesterday. Addressing a national conference on taxation, Xiao Jie, director of the State Administration of Taxation, said this figure represented one of the highest annual tax growth rates since the country adopted its reform and opening-up policy in 1978. He attributed the robust increase to stable economic growth and a rapid rise in industrial enterprise profits.

CHINA'S yuan rose to the strongest since the end of its United States dollar peg in July 2005 for a third straight day on speculation the regulator will widen the currency's daily trading band. The yuan gained 0.24 percent to 7.3297 per dollar as of the 5:30pm close in Shanghai, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The currency, which has risen 6.5 percent against the US dollar this year and almost 13 percent since July 2005, is managed against a basket of currencies including the yen, South Korean won and British pound.

GUANHZHOU Toyota Motor Co Ltd plans to raise its sales target by 17 percent next year as it launches new models and on an expanded output capacity. The second Chinese joint venture of Toyota Motor Corp aims to sell 210,000 vehicles next year, including 175,000 units of Camry premier sedan and 35,000 Yaris hatchback which is scheduled to sell domestically in the middle of next year, the company said yesterday. Guangzhou Toyota has pinned high hopes on the Yaris, one of the Japanese car maker's global models, to tap the nation's fast growing economy car segment amid rising demand for fuel-efficient models. "The competition in the premier class segment will be more intense next year," said Yuan Zhongrong, executive vice president of Guangzhou Toyota. "The launch of Yaris meets local demand and will be key to fulfill our target." Guangzhou Toyota raised its sales target twice to 170,000 units this year fueled by high demand for the Camry sedan as its only

A NEW online textile export license system began operation in China yesterday, just days before a quota system for shipments to the European Union is to expire, sources in the Ministry of Commerce told Xinhua. The online application system "is one of a series of measures taken by China to better regulate the textile export market and avoid a surge of Chinese clothing exports to the EU like the one in 2005," Zhao Qiuyan, a senior analyst with the China Trade Remedy Information Website, under the ministry told Xinhua. After international textile quotas expired in January 2005, Europe was swamped by low-priced imports from China. That surge led Chinese and EU authorities to sign the Memorandum of Understanding on China-EU Textile Trade, which renewed quotas on China's textile exports to the EU in June 2005. But that pact will expire at the end of this year. The two sides agreed in September to set up a bilateral system to monitor Chinese exports of T-shirts, pullovers,

THE Agricultural Bank of China will launch its long-expected restructuring plan soon, the central bank governor said yesterday. The restructuring plan will be decided soon to elevate the bank into a strong and internationally competitive bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People's Bank of China, said yesterday at a financial forum in Beijing. Zhou said China's financial institutions should actively be engaged in the development of the agricultural sector, which is ABC's main focus. He added that the restructuring will start next year. Central Huijin Investment Co, which recently merged with China Investment Corp, will be involved in the restructuring of China Development Bank and ABC, said Lou Jiwei, chairman of the CIC, the country's sovereign wealth fund, at the forum. Deputy Finance Minister Li Yong was reported as saying earlier that one-third of the CIC's US$200 billion start-up capital, or US$66 billion, will be injected into China Development Bank and ABC for

SHARES of China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co ended 60.6 percent higher on its Shanghai debut yesterday following strong buying sentiment. The Shanghai-based insurer ended at 48.17 yuan (US$6.58) yesterday, after touching an intraday high of 51.97 yuan. It opened at 51 yuan yesterday. "Going public has been a dream for us in our 16-year development, and now the dream comes true," said Gao Guofu, chairman of the insurance group. "The opening price is a good figure and we believe we can sustain growth to give returns to our investors." Pan Hongwen, an associate actuary, said the shares are still reasonably priced though they are near the top limit of his expected price range of 40 yuan to 50 yuan. He suggested selling the shares if they rise to more than 55 yuan within six months. China Pacific will seek H-share listing as soon as possible and the preparation work on Hong Kong listing is carrying out quite smoothly, Gao said. He declined to make a specific

CHINA'S military enterprises are encouraged to conduct group listings and are expected to raise between 50 billion yuan (US$6.75 billion) and 60 billion yuan from public share sales by the end of 2010, a senior official said. The majority of these enterprises will complete their reform to turn into shareholding companies in five years, which paves the way to trade shares publicly, said Wu Fenglai, head of the Reform Department under China's Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense. In his article published yesterday in the China Securities Journal, Wu noted that military enterprises, except wholly state-owned ones, welcome foreign investment. Depending on their influence in national security, the country's military enterprises are divided into wholly state-owned, state-controlled and state-invested. "Most of China's military enterprises are allowed to source funds from the capital market and foreign investors," said Wu. China issued a new

CHINA'S futures market will be developed actively, but with caution, while the planned introduction of index futures should not disturb the stock market's performance, said the China Securities Regulatory Commission's Chairman Shang Fulin yesterday during a forum. "China will further diversify futures products and improve the risk control mechanism to create stable development in the futures market," Shang said during the 2007 China Finance Forum. He also demanded adequate preparations for the launch of index futures, which has long been anticipated. It will allow investors to sell short on China's stock markets for the first time. China has completed systematic and technical preparations for introducing index futures, Shang told Xinhua news agency in October. However, the launch of index futures has been postponed several times due to worries over its influence on a stock market presently in a correction period, industry analysts said. The index futures might be