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World Business Quick Take

■ Stock
Shanghai mulls new rules
The Shanghai Stock Exchange is mulling a proposal to widen the daily trading band as a first step before eventually scrapping the limit altogether, state press reported yesterday. Daily price volatility for Shanghai-listed firms would increase to 20 percent, double the current trading limit of 10 percent on either side of the opening bid, the Shanghai Securities News said, citing a study by the bourse. Eventually the trading limit will be scrapped in favor of a "circuit-breaker" or collar system, a measure commonly used by stock exchanges during large sell-offs to avert panic selling, the newspaper said.

■ Insurance
Australia allows merger
An Australian court granted final approval yesterday for a A$7.9 billion (US$6.2 billion) merger of banking and insurance firm Suncorp-Metway with general insurer Promina Group, Suncorp said. Suncorp said the Federal Court had approved a scheme of arrangement between the two companies, giving the green light to the biggest deal in Australia's financial services sector in six years. The merger will create a A$20 billion diversified financial services company that will be Australia's second-largest general insurance firm after Insurance Australia Group Ltd.

■ Steel
China rejects Mittal bid
China has rejected a bid by Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel maker, for a stake in Laiwu Steel Corp (萊蕪鋼鐵), state media said yesterday even as the Chinese company denied the report. The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning agency, turned down the proposal because it thought the price was too low and was worried about technology transfer, the China Daily said. However, an executive at Laiwu Steel told reporters no decision had been made yet on the deal with Luxembourg-based Arcelor Mittal. In February last year, Arcelor Mittal agreed to buy a 37.3-percent stake in Laiwu Steel for US$258 million.

■ Pharmacies
Alliance rejects takeover
Alliance Boots PLC, Britain's largest chain of pharmacies, rejected a ?9.7 billion (US$18.7 billion) takeover proposal on Monday from a private equity group. Alliance Boots said the US$19.32 per share offer from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and its largest shareholder, Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina, undervalued the business and its prospects. The company's board held an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the friendly approach, lodged after the London Stock Exchange closed on Friday.

■ Electronics
Dalian Intel plant approved
Intel Corp has received approval to build a US$2.5 billion (euro1.9 billion) chip plant in China, the government said yesterday. The factory is planned for the northeastern city of Dalian, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planning agency, said on its Web site. The Intel factory approved for Dalian would use advanced 90-nanometer technology, the NDRC said. Intel has 6,000 employees in China and factories in Shanghai and Chengdu. The Intel facility in Dalian would be one of China's biggest single foreign-financed projects if the company invested the full US$2.5 billion cited in the government announcement.


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