World Business Quick Take

■ Auto market
Mitsubishi in engine deal
Japan's Mitsubishi Motors will start supplying fuel-efficient gasoline engines to DaimlerChrysler of Germany for its Smart compact cars, the Japanese company said yesterday. Mitsubishi will supply the engines to DaimlerChrysler next year for its next-generation Smart "Fortwo" vehicles, the company said, but declined to comment on the exact number of engines to be supplied. The engines will be the same type as Mitsubishi Motors plans to install in its own new small car, the "i," to be released in January, it said. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun earlier reported that Mitsubishi was expected to supply 80,000 to 100,000 engines annually to DaimlerChrysler, which ended its financial support for the Japanese automaker in April last year. Mitsubishi will begin producing the engines at its Mizushima facility in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, at the end of this year, the business daily said, without citing sources.

■ Airlines
Soros invests US$25m
US billionaire investor George Soros has signed a deal to pump an additional US$25 million into China's Hainan Airlines (海南航空), the country' fourth largest carrier, state press and company officials said yesterday. The investment will be used to reorganize Hainan Airlines and create a new brand, Great Xinhua Group (新華航空集團), by merging its Xinhua Airlines (新華航空), Changan Airlines (長安航空) and Shanxi Airlines (山西航空) into Hainan, the China Daily and an airline official said. The new company aims to raise 5 billion yuan (US$618 million) by the end of this year and plans to list in Hong Kong next year, the newspaper said. "We are very confident about the future development of Hainan Airlines," Soros was quoted as saying.

■ Electronics
Sony Ericsson profits soar
Mobile phone giant Sony Ericsson said yesterday it had outpaced a fast-growing global mobile handset market to post profits for the third quarter well in excess of analysts' expectations. Net profit rose to 104 million euros (US$126 million) for the three months to Sept. 30, up from 90 million euros in the same period of the previous year. Pretax profit increased to 151 million euros from 136 million as the average selling price for mobile phones rose, compared with market expectation of 104 million euros. Sales leaped to 2.05 billion euros from 1.67 billion on the back of 13.8 million units shipped, which compares with 10.7 million units in the third quarter of last year. Sony Ericsson raised its global market outlook for this year to over 760 million units from 720 million previously.

■ Japan
Bankruptcies decline
The number of business bankruptcies in Japan between April and last month declined below 6,500 for the first time in 14 years on a fiscal first-half basis, Tokyo Shoko Research announced yesterday. The six-month figure dropped 4.8 per cent, compared to 6,388 during the same time period last year. More medium to small-size companies avoided bankruptcies by using the government's financial aid system while major firms improved their business conditions, the agency said. Debts accumulated by the bankrupt firms fell 8.2 percent to ¥2.90 trillion (US$25 billion), falling below ¥3 trillion for the first time on a fiscal first-half basis in nine years.