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World Business Quick Take

■ Automotive
Volkswagen denies bribery
At least 100,000 euros (US$120,000) may have been misused in an alleged corruption scandal at the German carmaker Volkswagen, the group's president said in an interview with a newspaper Saturday. Volkswagen's human resources chief, Peter Hartz, offered to resign Friday following revelations about alleged bribes taken by a senior executive and incentives to trade union members of Volkswagen's works council, which included trips to Brazil, stays in luxury hotels and visits to prostitutes. Volkswagen chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder told the Bild newspaper that the council had not been bribed. "If it is being hinted that [the management] corrupted the work's council, this accusation is completely absurd," he said, adding that precautions to prevent corruption were being stepped up.

■ Internet
Google wins lawsuit
Google Inc, the most-used Internet search engine, won an arbitration ruling against a Russian man who registered Web domain names including googkle.com and gooigle.com that contained links to sites unrelated to Google last week. The Web addresses were "confusingly similar" to Google's trademarked name and were being used in bad faith by Sergey Gridasov, the National Arbitration Forum said in a statement. Google filed a complaint with the arbitrator in May asserting legal rights to Web addresses similar to Google.com. Ownership of the Web addresses, which also included ghoogle.com and gfoogle.com, are being transferred to Google, said Kimberly Johnson, a spokeswoman for the arbitration forum.

■ Banking
Resona to issue shares
Resona Holdings, Japan's fifth-largest bank, plans to issue about US$890 million of shares to US and European investors to enhance its capital, reports said Sunday. Resona planned the issuance of ?100 billion (US$890 million) worth of preferred shares this year in the first such move since its nationalization in early 2003, the Nihon Keizai daily and Kyodo News agency said. The move was aimed at facilitating the repayment of public funds injected on the nationalization, they said, noting the group owes the government about ?3 trillion. No immediate comment was available from the company. Resona, which was bailed out by the government in June last year, returned to the black for the first time in five years in the 12 months to March after slashing bad loans and operating costs.

■ Aviation
Consolidation needed: Chew
Singapore Airlines chief executive Chew Choon Seng said yesterday the global airline industry needs to consolidate as soaring oil prices continue to hit profits. He noted Singapore Airlines, Asia's largest carrier by market capitalization, and Australian carrier Qantas are discussing sharing maintenance facilities for the new Airbus 380 super jumbo, which both carriers plan to fly. "It makes sense that neither of us duplicate facilities but rather put our heads together and see where we can have joint efforts and share facilities and thereby spread costs," Chew told the Nine Network's Business Sunday program. Singapore's Transport Minister Yeo Cheow Tong told the program that a merger between Singapore Airlines and Qantas Airways remains unlikely under present regulatory conditions.

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