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World Business Quick Take

■ Finance
Mizuho may sell shares
Japan's largest lender, Mizuho Financial Group, kept quiet yesterday about a report that it planned to sell about 5 percent or US$3.5 billion of its outstanding shares as early as this month. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the group wanted to improve its capital base to fully repay a public funds injection by next July and to increase lending, particularly to smaller businesses, an area of increasing competition. "Strategic discussions about our capital [position] are always ongoing and are very important but at this point we have made no decision that should be disclosed," said a Mizuho spokesman, reading from a prepared statement.

■ Banking
CCB plans IPO
China Construction Bank (CCB, 建設銀行), the third largest lender in China, plans to raise up to US$7.64 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong with a sale of 26.49 billion shares, according to its listing perspectus released yesterday. The share sale, which will be the largest global offering so far this year and the biggest IPO in Hong Kong in four years, will be priced in a range of HK$1.80 to HK$2.25 (US$0.23 to US$0.29) each, representing 1.59 to 1.9 times the bank's book value per share last year. In June, another Chinese bank, Bank of Communications (交通銀行), offered shares at 1.6 times book value in its US$1.9 billion IPO.

■ Chemicals
Singapore mulls alternative
Singapore is considering importing methanol as an additional or alternative feedstock to boost the competitiveness of its petrochemical plants, industry sources said in a newspaper report yesterday. "We want to ride on all the activity on the gas-development front, one of the sources told the Business Times. Methanol is a byproduct of natural gas. It is easily shipped, unlike natural gas, which first has to be liquefied and then converted back into a gas at the receiving terminal. Singapore is considering bringing in methanol as an edge against new Middle East natural-gas-fueled crackers, which are facilities used to split gas molecules into their chemical components. Singapore's three existing crackers, operated by the Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) and ExxonMobile, use naphtha from oil refineries as feedstock.

■ Trade
Japan may allow US beef
Japan indicated yesterday it would likely resume importing US beef by the end of the year, paving the way to end a bitter two-year trade rift over mad cow disease fears. The lifting of the import ban would clear a major impediment in relations between the close allies before an expected visit to Japan by US President George W. Bush in mid-November. A food safety panel agreed late Tuesday that there was little risk in US or Canadian beef of the brain-wasting mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi welcomed the decision. "It would be good if we could create an environment in which safe beef enters the market," Koizumi said. Japan has been under intensifying US pressure to resume US beef imports, which were suspended in December 2003 over safety concerns after a case of mad cow disease was found in a US herd.

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