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World Business Quick Take

■ Aviation
Indian, Airbus ink deal
Indian airlines has finalized a deal to buy 43 Airbus passenger jets for US$2.5 billion, the aircraft maker's chief executive said yesterday. The deal had been in the works for some time, and was being signed in the presence of French President Jacques Chirac and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who met in Delhi yesterday, Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard said. Under the deal, Indian will purchase A320 and A319 airplanes. At catalogue prices, that totals US$2.5 billion, he said. The state-owned domestic carrier -- which changed its name from "Indian Airlines" to simply "Indian" in December -- flies mainly domestic routes. The airline is struggling to fend off challenges to its market share by low-cost newcomers to India's airline industry.

■ Banking
China nabs corrupt bankers
China's banking regulatory watchdog said yesterday more than 1,200 of its own staff had been involved in irregular activities last year. The China Banking Regulatory Commission said 1,228 employees were involved with irregular funds that included illegal loans, starting private businesses and holding stakes in rural credit cooperatives. Eighty-four million yuan (US$10.4 million) in irregular funds had been uncovered in the investigations, the commission said. No other details, such as the punishments, were provided. China's banking industry has been awash with corruption during the past 25 years of reforms that has seen the country move from a planned socialist economy to the wheeling and dealing one driven by the market. The commission said early this month it had identified 767 billion yuan in irregular funds in the banking system in last year, 31 percent higher than 2004. Last year a total of 1,205 financial institutions were penalized for fund violations, with 6,826 bank officials reprimanded, 59 percent higher than last year, it said.

■ Beef
Japan unhappy with probe
Japan's farm minister said yesterday that a US probe on beef safety and madcow disease was "insufficient," signalling that a ban on US beef imports was unlikely to be lifted soon. "The content of the report was insufficient for Japan. There are many items that we want to confirm," Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The US said on Friday that a shipment last month that triggered a new embargo on US beef was caused by confusion among US meat inspectors as to what products were eligible for export to Japan.

■ Electronics
LG plans Iran factory
LG Electronics Inc, the world's largest maker of air conditioners, plans to build a factory in Iran, according to an advertisement published by the South Korean company in the Tehran Times. The contract was signed in Tehran yesterday and the factory will be inaugurated by the end of October, according to the notice, published today. The plant will employ more than 1,000 people, it said, without providing an investment figure. Investor wariness about Iran's nuclear program as well as concern about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's protectionist economic policies have slowed down the pace of foreign investment in the Islamic republic during the past 10 months.

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