Business news for Tue, 25 Dec 2007 & with word company. 49 news.

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.

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.

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

GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein claimed a US$67.9-million bonus, the biggest ever awarded to the CEO of a Wall Street firm, after delivering a record profit amid the subprime market collapse. Blankfein, 53, received US$26.8 million in cash and US$41.1 million in restricted stock and options, the New York-based firm said in a December 21 regulatory filing, Bloomberg News reported. His payout rose 26 percent from 2006 while mortgage-related losses drove Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack and Bear Stearns Cos chief James "Jimmy" Cayne to forgo year-end awards. Goldman, the largest US securities firm, shattered Wall Street earnings records for the fourth-consecutive year even as banks and brokerages including Citigroup Inc and Merrill Lynch & Co were forced to take at least US$96 billion worth of writedowns. Blankfein's bonus amounts to about two days' profit at his company during the 12 months to November 30. "This year has really

OAO Gazprom, Russia's biggest company, is set to gain control of OAO OGK-6, the nation's third-largest power generator by capacity, after spending almost 21 billion rubles (US$850 million) on new shares. The natural-gas producer paid 3.8 rubles per share for 5.5 billion shares in Moscow-based OGK-6, which represents 46.6 percent of the new shares offered, the power company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. OGK-6 is selling 11.9 billion new shares, the equivalent of a 44-percent post-equity stake. Gazprom, which completed the transaction via ZAO Gazenergoprom-Invest unit, had options on 51.8 percent of OGK-6 before the sale as part of a share-swap agreement with national utility OAO Unified Energy System. The state-controlled parent of OGK-6 allowed its minority shareholders to swap shares in units before being dismantled in July 2008, Bloomberg News said. Unified Energy's board approved on July 27 the share-swap plan, which will allow Gazprom to take control of a third of

LINDE Group said it has secured a long-term supply contract with a leading Chinese polyurethane company involving a total investment of about US$125 million, the German gases and engineering firm's single largest investment in China. Linde Gas Ningbo, its wholly-owned unit, will supply oxygen and nitrogen to Ningbo Wanhua Polyurethane Co's plants in eastern China from 2010 onwards, according to a statement. The world's largest maker of industrial gases will build two sets of air separation units, each with the capacity to produce 1,300 tons of oxygen per day, and a 30-kilometer long pipeline infrastructure, to supply Ningbo Wanhua and Ningbo Steel. The facilities will also produce 800 tons per day of liquid nitrogen, oxygen and argon, for the merchant market in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, in addition to rare gases like krypton and xenon. "Linde's investment in this project signals our long-term commitment in China, underpinned by our expertise in the entire coal

ALLIANCE Group, controlled by oil entrepreneur Musa Bazhaev, and billionaire OAO Polymetal owner Suleiman Kerimov, plans to bid for a stake worth US$622 million in OAO Polyus Gold, Russia's biggest miner of the metal. ZAO KM Invest, the manager of jointly held assets of Mikhail Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin, is selling the 7.4-percent stake because they plan to pursue investments separately, Bloomberg News reported. Their wrangling has delayed Polyus's plans to spin off its least-developed mining assets. Polyus has dropped 9.5 percent this year in London. "Polyus shares have had a very mediocre year, while gold has risen rapidly," said Yury Vlasov, an analyst with Renaissance Capital in Moscow. "The common feeling is Polyus will start to copy that dynamic." Alliance's ZAO Alliance-Prom unit has sent a letter to KM Invest, Moscow-based Alliance said yesterday in a statement. Nafta Moskva Ltd, Kerimov's holding company, also sent a letter, Anton Averin, head

MATSUSHITA Electric Industrial Co, the world's largest maker of plasma televisions, may buy control of a Hitachi Ltd unit to increase sales of faster-growing liquid crystal display sets. The company may almost double its stake in LCD maker IPS Alpha Technology Ltd to more than 50 percent, the Osaka-based maker of Panasonic-brand products said yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. Financial terms were not disclosed. Matsushita joins LG.Philips LCD Co in buying shares of display makers to weather a supply shortage that analysts at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and UBS AG estimate will persist next year. LCD TVs are taking market share from plasma by offering brighter images and slimmer models. "The move will give Matsushita a foothold to expand in LCDs," said Hideyuki Suzuki, an analyst at SBI E*Trade Securities Co in Tokyo. "There's been a concern with Matsushita because it's focusing on plasma screens at a time when LCD screens are overwhelmingly better."

SANYO Electric Co, the Japanese electronics maker targeting its first profit in four years, may have its shares removed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange after misstating six years of financial results. The shares are on watch for possible delisting, the exchange said on its Website after Osaka-based Sanyo disclosed yesterday it understated losses from April 2000 to March 2006. Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission recommended Sanyo be fined 8.3 million yen (US$72,650), Bloomberg News said. The misstatements may hamper recovery efforts by a company that had to be bailed out by creditors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc last year. Sanyo last month said it plans to invest 350 billion yen to focus on operations such as rechargeable batteries and cells that convert sunlight into energy. "Sanyo would have to further reorganize its business" if the shares become delisted, said Naoki Fujiwara, who helps oversee US$3.2 billion as chief fund manager at Shinkin

CHINA'S air conditioner giant Midea Electric Appliances will acquire four companies from its parent Guangdong Midea Group to expand capacity and business. The company's shareholder board on Monday approved its proposal to pay 480 million yuan (US$65 million) for a 100-percent stake in Hefei Hualing Electrics Co Ltd, Guangzhou Hualing Air Conditioning & Equipment Co Ltd and a 95-percent stake in China Refrigeration Industry Co. It also plans to spend 31 million yuan to acquire a 30-percent stake in Chongqing Midea General Refrigeration Equipment Co from its parent company, the country's largest air conditioner maker told Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday. Hong Kong-listed Hualing Holdings Limited, which lost HK$372.02 million in 2.5 years through June 30, deals in selling household electrical appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators with its subsidiaries. "The acquisition won't benefit Midea a lot based on Hualing's assets. Midea may target Hualing's listed

JAPAN'S top mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo will join with Internet search engine Google to provide Internet search and e-mail services on the company's handsets, news reports said yesterday. Starting as early as the Spring, users will be able to access Google search, e-mail, scheduling and photo-saving features through NTT DoCoMo's i-Mode Internet network, Japan's main business daily The Nikkei said, without identifying its sources. The two firms plan to integrate the search feature with handset software, enabling the development of new services, the paper said. Tokyo-based DoCoMo Inc is also considering developing a next-generation handset using Google's free operating system for mobile devices, it said. Such a phone could be introduced in the second half of next year, paving the way for the companies to roll out a wide range of cutting-edge services. DoCoMo spokeswoman Makiko Furuta said users can already search the Internet with Google and other search engines through its

DELEK Real Estate Ltd, the Israeli company that backed out of a US$2.9-billion deal with Jelmoli AG, has agreed to buy 12 Frankfurt-area supermarkets from Metro AG, Germany's biggest retailer, for 243 million euros (US$349 million), Bloomberg News reported on Sunday. Delek, through its Delek Global Real Estate unit, will acquire the buildings from the Real supermarket chain, a subsidiary of Metro, the Netanya, Israel-based company said in an e-mailed statement to the stock exchange. Real will rent 10 of the supermarkets from Delek through 2022, and the other two through 2020, beginning at 16 million euros annually for all the properties. The rent will increase 6.7 percent every five years. "DGRE has again purchased a property with a quality tenant for a long period in a central area, and proved that even in these times it can use its connections to close deals and get good financing," Chief Executive Officer Ilik Rozanski said in the statement. Delek Real Estate, a

INVESTOR William Ackman raised his stake in Target Corp, the second-biggest discount chain in the United States, and held talks with management on increasing the stock price. Ackman controls 10 percent of the company, up from 9.6 percent earlier this year, his Pershing Square Capital Management LP said on Monday in a regulatory filing, according to Bloomberg News. Pershing is seeking share repurchases and the sale of Target's credit-card loans, as well as "some kind of real estate transaction," a person familiar with the firm's plans said, declining to elaborate. Target has said it's evaluating whether to sell its US$7 billion credit-card portfolio and will make a decision in the first three months of 2008. Target's shares have declined 18 percent since Ackman amassed his stake in July. Pershing's holdings include stock and options to buy the shares. With swap contracts, Ackman has an "economic" interest in Target of almost 12.6 percent, up from 10.2 percent

CHINA'S central bank raised interest rates six times in 2007 and stocks in the world's fastest growing economy are still more than twice as expensive as United States shares. PetroChina Co, whose market value tops Exxon Mobil Corp's by 39 percent, earns half the profit of the largest US oil company. China Mobile Ltd, the Beijing-based wireless carrier, is worth 41 percent more than AT&T Inc and brings in two-thirds its revenue. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd has grown to almost double the size of Bank of America Corp with a third the US lender's earnings. While the People's Bank of China pledged "forceful measures" and raised interest rates to a nine-year high last week to curb inflation and investing, stocks in the CSI 300 Index trade at 44.7 times earnings, the most expensive among the 10 largest markets, and more than double the ratio for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, data compiled by Bloomberg News show. The benchmark is up 171 percent this year in US

HARRAH'S Entertainment Inc has received final regulatory approval needed to complete the largest casino buyout ever, a year after Apollo Management LP and TPG Inc agreed to the US$17.1 billion purchase. The National Indian Gaming Commission approved the acquisition, removing the last regulatory hurdle to the purchase, Las Vegas-based Harrah's said in a statement. The transaction will be completed in early 2008, the company said. Harrah's, the world's largest casino company, received permission from Illinois, Nevada, Indiana and six other regulators in the states where it operates. The buyout firms agreed in December 2006 to acquire Harrah's for US$90 a share, attracted by its real-estate holdings and ability to generate cash, according to Bloomberg News. Indian approval was needed because Harrah's runs tribal casinos. Founded in 1937 in Reno, Nevada, Harrah's owns the Bally's, Caesars and Flamingo casinos in Las Vegas as part of its holdings, most of which are in the United

TOYOTA said yesterday that it plans to sell 9.85 million vehicles globally in 2008. It also said it plans to produce 9.95 million vehicles worldwide during the same year, up five percent from this year - the same percentage jump for the auto maker's global sales. The car maker is in a neck-and-neck race that could dethrone General Motors as the world's top auto maker this year. Toyota Motor Corp's targets, announced at a hotel in Nagoya, Japan, near company headquarters, far surpasses the 9.3 million vehicles General Motors has given as its estimate for production this year. GM has not given a forecast for the number of vehicles it expects to produce or sell in 2008. GM has been fighting back fiercely and boosting its overseas business to try to retain the top industry spot, which it has held for 76 years. Toyota has grown steadily in recent years along with the popularity of its models such as the Camry sedan, Corolla subcompact and the Prius gas-electric hybrid.

Wall Street analysts have complained about confusion during the executive transition, and there is a widespread view that there is no logical reason for the company's disparate assets.

Toyota plans to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide next year, the company said yesterday, setting...

Toyota Motor on Tuesday raised its sales forecast for 2008 to 9.85 million vehicles, cementing the company's lead as the world's most profitable carmaker.

Toyota plans to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide in 2008, the company said Tuesday, setting an ambitious target despite worries about a slowing U.S. car market, as it tries to become the world's top automaker.