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■ Shipbuilding
Hyundai wins huge deal
Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, the world's biggest shipbuilder, said it won an order to build seven container carriers worth a combined 655 billion won (US$557 million). Delivery of the ships to AP Moller Singapore Pte will be completed by September 2007, Hyundai Heavy said in a statement filed to the Korea Stock Exchange. At the end of last month, the company's backlog of shipbuilding orders was 193 ships, worth US$10.2 billion. That will help keep Hyundai Heavy's dockyards busy for 33 months, company spokesman Kim Kwang-kook said.

■ Labor
Strikers fired by SMS
South Korea's third-largest credit card issuer fired a quarter of its workforce via mobile phone text messages on Friday, after negotiations with striking unionized workers broke down. KEB Credit Service Co sacked 161 employees, a spokeswoman for the company's parent bank said. "The layoff date is Feb. 28," the message said, according to a member of the union. "We will receive applications for voluntary retirement package until Feb. 28." The firm said it had no method for contacting striking staff other than using SMS. Unionized workers, who make up nearly 90 percent of the firm's 662 staff, have been on strike since mid-December over a takeover by Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), fearing job cuts.

■ Foodstuffs
COFCO may double earnings
China National Cereals, Oils & Foodstuffs Import and Export Corp, the nation's biggest grain trader, aims to double its revenue by 2010 and earn a third of its profit from financial services, the South China Morning Post reported, citing chairman Zhou Mingchen. The company, known as COFCO, earlier formed an insurance brokerage venture with Aon Corp, the world's second-largest insurance brokerage. General Electric Co (GE), the world's largest company by market value, provides a model for Chinese conglomerates to expand, the paper said, citing Zhou. GE earns 40 percent of its profit from finance, Zhou said. COFCO bought an insurance company in New Zealand in 1993, which it renamed Peng Li Insurance.

■ Pay package
HK gives execs bonuses
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd, Asia's second-biggest stock market by value, said it will pay chief executive Paul Chow HK$8.2 million (US$1.1 million) this year. The payment to Chow, who started last May, includes benefits and pension contributions, the exchange said in a statement. Chow was paid HK$5.6 million for his eight months' work last year, including a HK$200,000 performance bonus. The exchange yesterday reported an 18 percent gain in full-year net income, beating some analysts' estimates, amid a surge in new share sales and trading volumes. Chief operating officer Patrick Conroy, who joined the company on Aug. 18, will be paid HK$6.3 million, making him the exchange's second-highest paid employee, the statement said. Shares of Hong Kong Exchanges dropped HK$0.15, or 0.7 percent, to HK$20.60 at the 4pm close.

■ Budget
HK narrows deficit
Hong Kong's budget deficit narrowed 23 percent in the first ten months of the financial year that ends March 31 as the government collected more income and corporate taxes in January. The deficit from April 2003 through January 2004 narrowed to HK$45.2 billion (US$5.8 billion) from HK$58.4 billion a year earlier, the government said in a statement. For January, the government had a budget surplus of HK$25.8 billion, an increase of 27 percent from a year earlier. In the ten-month period, revenue rose 12 percent to HK$157.7 billion and expenditure increased 2 percent to HK$202.9 billion.

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