World Business Quick Take

■ Airlines
Virgin Blue ready for IPO
Australian budget airline Virgin Blue said yesterday the way was now clear for its planned public listing after one of its shareholders announced revisions to its rights concerning the flotation. Transport group Patrick Corp Ltd said it would no longer be required to sell 5 percent of its current 50 percent holding as part of any public listing. It will also would have the right to subscribe to new shares to ensure its shareholding remains at no less than 45 percent. Its current intention is to maintain that level of interest, it said. Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey said the agreement would place the airline in a better position to compete, but was non-specific about when the market listing would take place. "This restructured shareholders agreement fully aligns the interests of our two shareholders and paves the way for us to introduce new equity into our business," Godfrey said.

■ Publishing
Industry giant burns e-books
Barnes & Noble Inc has stopped selling e-books effective immediately, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site. The online book retailer has found that the format is neither user nor price friendly, and the market for e-books hasn't developed fast enough, the newspaper said, citing chief executive officer Marie Toulantis. Publishers haven't made enough of a price difference between hardcover books and their electronic counterparts, the Journal said, citing Toulantis. The retailer's decision won't affect some publishers' e-book programs, the newspaper reported, citing Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Bertelsmann AG's Random House Inc.

■ Macroeconomics
China's output grows 17.1%
China's monthly industrial output grew 17.1 percent last month from the period year-earlier, with manufacturers pumping out more cars, mobile phones and electr-onics. The factory output growth was the highest since March, State Statistical Bureau figures showed yesterday, outstripping the 16.5 percent year-on-year rise in July and the 16.9 percent rise in June. Industrial output between January and August was up 16.5 percent from the year-earlier period, the bureau said in a statement. The growth was 1.7 percentage points higher than July, a sign that the broader economy retained strong momentum. China's economy grew an annual 8.2 percent in the first half of this year and is widely expected to grow about 8 percent this year.

■ Tourism
Japan exposes impure spas
A government watchdog has warned the owners of hot springs resorts nationwide to come clean on the benefits of their baths, claiming advertisements exaggerating quality and healthiness are rampant. Japan's Fair Trade Commission found that of 217 spas claiming in their brochures or on Internet homepages to use "100 percent natural" hot spring waters, 70 percent were fudging the truth, commission official Seiji Watanabe said Tuesday. In reality, he said, many of the inns artificially heated spring water, mixed it with outside water sources, or pumped it in from a location off the inns' premises. Only about one-third of the nation's 22,000 hot springs inns are believed to use pure, undiluted water from its natural source. "There are almost no real hot springs left," he said. Watanabe said the commission is considering a crackdown on misleading claims.