World Business Quick Take

■ Finance
China has more billionaires
The number of billionaires in formally communist China has climbed from three to 10 in just one year, according to Forbes Asia's latest rich list on the fast-rising economic giant. "Brisk economic growth and a huge appetite among foreigners for Chinese investments helped to propel the wealth of China's richest people in the past 12 months," Forbes said in a statement. It said the collective net worth of China's 100 wealthiest reached US$41 billion, up from US$29 billion a year ago. The risks seen by international investors in putting money into Chinese companies have been declining, helping increase the value of assets in China and the wealth of the individuals and companies that own them, Forbes said. Rong Zhijian (榮智健), of Hong Kong-listed CITIC Pacific ranked number one for the second consecutive year with wealth of US$1.644 billion. Zhu Mengyi (朱孟依), a property developer, and his family ranked second with US$1.43 billion and Internet tycoon William Ding (丁磊) was number three with US$1.267 billion.

■ Finance
China shuts bad brokerages
Regulators closed 14 Chinese stock brokerages and punished one more for heavy debts and financial irregularities in a campaign to clean up the country's securities markets, a news report said yesterday. Zhuang Xinyi (莊心一), vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, speaking at an industry conference Thursday, said many brokerages are deep in debt due to mismanagement and market speculation, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Zhuang didn't identify the brokerages that were shut down or give a timeframe for the closures. But the country's fifth-largest, China Southern Securities, was closed in August after going bankrupt.

■ Singapore
Gas trade looks promising
Competition triggering more global liquefield natural gas spot deals, a positive sign for Singapore's plan to trade the resource, an official with Norway's Statoil said in a report published Friday. "LNG used to be traded 100 per cent on long-term contracts of 20 years between buyer and seller," The Business Times quoted Statoil's vice-president Richard Ericksen as saying. "Today, 15 to 20 percent is sold spot," he said. Ericksen said Singapore's plan to trade LNG, besides importing it as an additional fuel source for power stations here, could be feasible. Statoil is the world's third-largest oil exporter. It accounts for half of Norway's oil production and more than 80 percent of its gas production.

■ Music
Web site launches label
The social networking Web site MySpace.com has launched its own record label in a joint venture with Interscope Records hoping to capitalize on its broad reach among music-savvy consumers. MySpace Records will feature independent and unsigned artists as well as compilations that include top groups from other labels, the company said Thursday. The label's first release will be a com-pilation of tracks that have become popular among the sites 36 million registered users and will feature songs from groups such as Weezer. MySpace has ballooned since it was created in 1999. The site has struck marketing deals with major Hollywood studios, TV networks and record labels to promote programs, films and musical acts on its site.