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World Business Quick Take

■ Natural Gas
Gazprom to liberalize stocks
The chairman of Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom promised yesterday that restrictions on foreign stock ownership in the world's biggest gas producer would be lifted by the end of the year. The liberalization is seen as a move by the Kremlin to restore the faith of foreign investors who have been shaken by the legal assault on the Yukos oil company. Dmitry Medvedev, who serves simultaneously as the Kremlin chief of staff and chairman of the Gazprom board, said that the liberation "is not only a significant and long-awaited event, but also an important step in developing the entire Russian stock market," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

■ Automakers
Venezuela gets tough on tax
Venezuela's tax office closed the sales and administrative offices of three foreign automakers on Thursday for alleged bookkeeping violations, the office said in a statement. The move was the latest step in the Seniat tax office's campaign against tax evasion. Japan's Mazda Corp, France's Renault and US automaker General Motors Corp all had their head offices closed for two days, starting on Thursday. The Seniat inspected the car companies as part of a wider audit of businesses in the central cities of Maracay and Valencia, where dozens of smaller companies were shut for tax violations. Last year, Seniat began an aggressive push to curb tax evasion that included shutting down operations of large firms with bookkeeping violations. Tax revenue has surged as a result of the initiative against evasion and strong economic growth.

■ Fuel-cell Vehicles
Honda aims to cut prices
Honda Motor Co said the company aims to lower the price of its fuel-cell operated vehicles to about the same as regular gasoline-engine powered cars by 2020. Honda wants to cut the price of its fuel-cell vehicles to between ?3 million (US$27,500) and ?4 million, a similar price as that of its Accord sedan, Yozo Kami, who leads the fuel cell project, said at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday. Honda wouldn't give an exact price of the FCX fuel-cell vehicles now. "The fuel-cell technology may never be used," if no one is able to cut production costs by 2020, Kami said. It may take another 10 years from now to cut the cost of such vehicles to ?10 million, he added. Honda currently leases the FCX for ?800,000 a month in Japan for a one-year period.

■ Automakers
Toyota plans new factory
The Toyota Motor Corp is expected to announce next Thursday that it will build a second manufacturing plant in Canada, people who have been briefed on the company's plans said. The plant will be in Woodstock, Ontario, about 50km southwest of Toyota's operation in Cambridge. The plant is expected to open in 2008 and will cost about C$600 million (US$486 million), including C$125 million in incentive money from the governments of Canada and Ontario. The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto first reported the possible announcement on Thursday. Toyota's current Canadian operation is the only plant outside of Japan making Lexus models. It also builds Corollas and the Matrix hatchback. The new factory is expected to produce small SUVs under the Toyota brand name as well as models for the company's Scion line, which is not offered in Canada. Like all auto plants in Canada, most of the new factory's production will be shipped to the US.

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