Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word million. 54 news.

INDIA, the world's second-biggest wheat consumer, scrapped a tender to buy 350,000 tons of the grain after balking at higher prices amid expectations domestic production will be the highest in seven years. "Prices are too high," India's Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai said in a phone interview with Bloomberg News in New Delhi yesterday. "We will take a decision on importing more wheat after the next wheat crop." The country should meet an output target of 75.5 million tons, the most since 2000, the farm ministry said on December 18. India, importing wheat for a second year to boost state reserves, may wait a few months before issuing a new tender as it expects prices to fall. Wheat rose above US$10 a bushel in Chicago for the first time on December 17 after concerns dry weather in Argentina, the world's fourth-biggest exporter, will shrink global supplies. "We may not import wheat as of now," Pillai said. Government-owned State Trading Corp on

THE US hotel chain Days Inn is expected to become the first international hotel brand to debut in the Changbai Mountains in northeast China's Jilin Province early next year, the administration committee of the mountain resort has said. By renovating a hotel in Chixi District of the nature reserve for 120 million yuan (US$16 million), the Days Inn hotel will offer 122 European-style rooms. It plans to be operational on January 18.22.

BAOSTEEL Group Corp, China's biggest steel maker, will receive 90.1 million shares in New China Life Insurance Co, bringing its total stake in the insurer to 17.3 percent, the insurance industry regulator said. After Shenhua Group Co transfers the stock to Baosteel, it will no longer hold a stake in the insurer, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement posted on its Website yesterday. The release didn't elaborate on pricing or other details of the share transfer.

THE China Development Bank and the Tianjin Binhai New Area signed an agreement to set up a venture capital fund to boost high-technology start-ups in the fastest-growing economic zone in north China. The Ministry of Science and Technology Website released yesterday the joint efforts to kick off the first government-backed venture capital worth two billion yuan (US$270 million) with equal contributions from the CDB and the TBNA. Pi Qiansheng, a vice-ministerial official who heads the TBNA administration, said the government funded and operated venture capital would primarily perform as a fund of funds, an investment fund that has a strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing in tangible projects. Pi said that the fund of funds will choose outstanding domestic and overseas venture capital funds, including private equity funds, to invest. The selected venture capital funds will be asked to prioritize their investment portfolio in high-technology

FRENCH cookware producer Groupe SEB has completed a partial tender offer for Zhejiang Supor Cookware Co, China's largest producer of kitchen appliances. The two companies will finish the settlement within this week, Supor said. Under the deal, SEB paid 2.3 billion yuan (US$312 million) to buy a maximum of 49.1 million shares at 47 yuan per 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 (US$469.8 million), 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. Construction on

TEMASEK Holdings Pte, the biggest shareholder in Standard Chartered Plc, increased its stake in the UK bank by one percentage point to 18 percent, helping it boost banking investments in its US$100 billion portfolio. The Singapore sovereign wealth fund has been raising its stake in Standard Chartered since it first bought a 12 percent holding more than a year ago, Bloomberg News reported. Temasek bought 12 million shares to lift its stake to 253.7 million shares, the bank said in a filing on December 21. The additional shares are worth 220 million pounds (US$437 million) at that day's closing price of 1,835 pence. Set up in 1974 to run state assets, Temasek's financial services investments now include India's ICICI Bank Ltd and Bank of China Ltd, as well as a controlling stake in DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Southeast Asia's biggest bank. It may also invest US$5 billion in Merrill Lynch & Co, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. "Most of Temasek's investments in the

NANYANG Commercial Bank plans to at least double its network on the Chinese mainland in two years, after it opened its local incorporation yesterday to fully tap the mainland market. The bank said in Shanghai yesterday it would offer unlimited yuan services. The Hong Kong-based bank gained the approval to set up the local incorporation with a registered capital of 2.5 billion yuan (US$341 million) from the China Banking Regulatory Commission on December 4. The local incorporation was set up on December 14. Nanyang Commercial Bank has six branches and one sub-branch on the Chinese mainland in cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian and Haikou. "Network expansion is a key part of the local incorporation's business development," a bank spokesman said. He said the bank would first focus on major cities in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and coastal areas in the geographic expansion. It will also seek opportunities to open outlets in

CHINA Oilfield Services Ltd, a unit of the nation's third-largest oil producer, won a contract to supply four drilling rigs to Libya for about US$100 million. China Oilfield will deliver two 7,000-meter and two 5,000-meter drilling rigs over three years starting in March, the Beijing-based company said on its Website today. The oil and gas services company, whose main customer is CNOOC Ltd, aims to expand both at home and abroad to benefit from increased exploration spending after oil prices surged. "This is the company's first overseas onshore drilling contract," Yuan Guangyu, vice chairman of China Oilfield, said. "We see Libya as the starting point to expand our broad range of oil field services to overseas markets such as the Middle East and north Africa." China Oilfield shares rose 6.7 percent to HK$17.92 at the Hong Kong stock exchange's close at 12:30pm.

FISHER & Paykel Healthcare Corp, the New Zealand-based maker of breathing masks to treat sleep disorders, rose to a three-month high in Wellington after the takeover of a rival stoked speculation about more mergers. The Auckland-based company jumped three percent to its highest since September 20, after Respironics Inc, the world's largest manufacturer of the breathing devices, was acquired by Royal Phillips Electronics NV for US$5.2 billion in cash, Bloomberg News reported. Fisher & Paykel has about seven percent of the market for products to treat obstructive sleep apnea, a condition thought to affect as many as 12 million Americans. It is among a handful of companies with US Food & Drug Administration approval to sell OSA devices, along with Respironics and ResMed Inc. "They definitely could be a takeover target because the OSA market is very attractive with its high growth," said Stephen Walker, who manages the equivalent of US$107 million at Walker Capital

APPLIANCE maker Sichuan Changhong Electrical Co yesterday bid for a 29.92-percent stake in Huayi Compressor Co to expand its business. The TV company said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday that it would acquire 91.7 million shares from Huayi's parent Huayi Electrical Appliance General Co via an auction. The Jiangxi-based Huayi, which produces compressors for air conditioners and refrigerators, was suspended from trading in the Shenzhen stock market since December 14 when it announced the auction plan. The 91.7 million shares are valued at 956 million yuan (US$129 million) based on its closing share price of 10.42 yuan per share on December 13. Changhong wasn't traded yesterday, and its closing price on Friday was 8.45 yuan. Share price of the Shanghai-listed company has doubled this year. Changhong's net profit in the first nine months of this year totaled 340 million yuan, jumping 39 percent from a year earlier on the booming electronics market.

RAPID urbanization as well as robust demand for homes will continue to boost the country's real estate industry in 2008, industry analysts said. Wei Bo, a property analyst with Central China Securities Company, sees three main factors as being responsible for the strong demand. "New demand from the country's urbanization progress, growing requirement for larger and better homes among the Chinese, as well as rising investments caused by the appreciation of the Chinese currency and the existing negative interest rates, will probably help the real estate industry's fortune for another year," Wei said. "We expect the industry to maintain its high pace of development and give it a 'better than broad market' rating." China is seeing probably one of the largest urbanization in the world. According to an earlier forecast by the United Nations, between 16 million and 22 million people will migrate from rural places to urban areas in the country each year from now

GENERAL Motors Corp said it has become the first overseas car maker to sell one million units on the Chinese mainland this year. The milestone is a result of GM adopting a multi-brand strategy and growing its lineup of vehicles in the world's second largest auto market over the past 10 years. GM didn't give specific sales figure for the whole year. Last year, it sold 876,747 units on the mainland, a jump of 32 percent from 2005 and outpaced the growth of the entire auto industry of 25 percent. The one-millionth figure was marked when GM China Group President and Managing Director Kevin Wale handed the keys to a Buick Park Avenue to Zhang Jianping at Shanghai GM's corporate showroom in Shanghai last Friday. It took GM five years to boost sales by 10 times from 100,000 units in 2002 to one million units this year amid fierce competition with rivals like Volkswagen and Toyota. Detroit-based GM, the world's largest car maker, has a flagship passenger car venture Shanghai

ALCATEL-LUCENT will pay US$2.5 million to settle charges that it violated US anti-bribery laws by paying for hundreds of trips taken by Chinese officials to secure millions of dollars in contracts. The trips were provided between 2000 and 2003 by Lucent Technologies, prior to its 2006 acquisition by Alcatel SA, according to a US Justice Department statement. Lucent footed the bill for approximately 315 trips for Chinese officials, including sightseeing trips to Las Vegas, Disneyland and the Grand Canyon, the department said. The company paid a US$1-million fine to the Justice Department and US$1.5 million in civil penalties to settle a separate complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The recipients were officials with Chinese state-owned telecommunications companies considered important to securing new business. "Alcatel-Lucent China hasn't further comment on the issue, and we will sustain a healthy and long-term relationship with Chinese government officials

Patterson Cos. Inc. announced Monday that its board of directors approved an increase in the number of shares that can be repurchased from 6 million to 25 million.

CGEN's larger competitor Focus Media announced it was buying CGEN in a deal that could ultimately wind up being worth $350 million.

The controlling shareholder of office furniture maker Teknion Corp. is offering to buy all of the company in a friendly deal worth $76.8 million.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Orion Energy Systems Inc. said underwriters have exercised their over-allotment options, putting the total size of the company's initial public offering at more than 8.8 million common shares. Net proceeds of about $78.8 million will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes, including funding potential acquisitions, the Plymouth, Wis.-based energy-management company.

United Rentals Inc. said Monday it will seek $100 million after a Delaware court ruled that private equity company Cerberus was not obligated to complete a $4 billion buyout of the equipment-rental company that it abandoned last month.

Cerberus Capital Management L.P. agreed Monday to pay United Rentals Inc. a $100 million breakup fee for dropping its $4 billion purchase of the equipment-rental company.

NANYANG Commercial Bank plans to at least double its network on the Chinese mainland in two years after it opened its local incorporation today. Nanyang Commercial Bank (China) Ltd opened in Shanghai yesterday to offer unlimited yuan services to Chinese. The Hong Kong-based bank gained approval to set up the local incorporation with a registered capital of 2.5 billion yuan (US$341 million) from the China Banking Regulatory Commission on December 4. Nanyang Commercial Bank has six branches and one sub-branch on the Chinese mainland in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian, Haikou and Shanghai. "Network expansion is a key part of the local incorporation's business development," the bank said. The bank will first focus on major cities in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and the coastal area. It will also seek other opportunities in other areas. The bank will focus on personal financial planning products and services in retail banking. In corporate banking,