World Business Quick Take

■ Music industry
EMI offers bid for Warner
EMI Group Plc has offered £625 million (US$998 million) for Warner Music's recorded music unit as part of an effort to end merger talks between Warner and Bertelsmann AG's BMG division, the Financial Mail on Sunday reported, citing unidentified people in the industry. EMI chairman Eric Nicoli wants to find a merger partner and Warner is his preferred choice, the paper said. He is on friendly terms with AOL Time Warner Inc Chairman and chief executive Dick Parsons, the paper said. Warner and BMG have extended an exclusivity period for their negotiations, the report said. Last week the <
■ Scandals
SK Global head resigns
The chairman of South Korea's third-largest conglomerate, SK Group, has resigned as head of the group's troubled trading arm, SK Global, officials said yesterday. Group officials said the exit was aimed at helping creditors form a new leadership for SK Global, which admitted in March to inflating earnings by more than US$1.2 billion in 2001 to hide losses. Group chairman Son Kil-Seung and the largest shareholder, Chey Tae-Won, has been found guilty of accounting irregularities. Creditors will discuss the appointment of SK Global's new chairman and board members today, it said. Son, however, will retain his membership in the board of SK Corp, the largest refiner, which has a controlling stake in SK Global.

■ Trade
Da Silva urges cooperation
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged South American nations to stand united in trade negotiations with richer countries. "There is no individual solution for any country in South America," Silva said Saturday during the inauguration of a new turbine at the huge Itaipu hydroelectric dam on Brazil's southwestern border with Paraguay. The region's countries have to act as one political force in negotiations with rich countries, or Latin America would "continue [to be] poor for another century," Silva warned. Talks for an all-hemispheric Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) have entered a difficult stage as South America's bigger economies, Brazil and Argentina, insist on an end to tariff barriers imposed against some of their agricultural products by the US.

■ Telecom
India limits CDMA
India's telecommunications regulator has recommended the government enforce limits on mobile phone companies such as Reliance Infocomm Ltd that use CDMA technology, the Economic Times reported. Since January 2001, fixed-line phone companies have been able to offer mobile services using code division multiple access, or CDMA technology, provided the service is limited within a city. Infocomm and other companies have skirted the limit, allowing customers to roam using call forwarding and multiple registrations. If the regulator's recom-mendations are accepted, the practice would have to end, the paper said. Phone companies using global system for mobile communications, or GSM standard technology, such as Bharti Tele- Ventures Ltd, had opposed the introduction of the rival services.