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World Business Quick Take

■ BANKING
Chinese buy UCBH stake
China Minsheng Banking Corp (中國民生銀行) said yesterday it will pay up to US$317 million for a 9.9 percent stake in UCBH Holdings Inc, the NASDAQ-listed parent company of US-based United Commercial Bank. The Beijing-based mid-sized lender announced the deal, its first overseas acquisition, in a notice to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The deal requires approval from both China's banking regulator and US authorities, Minsheng Bank said. "The deal will help Minsheng Bank realize its international strategy," the bank said in the notice. San Francisco-based UCBH Holdings likewise has also been seeking to expand its business in China.

■ BANKING
Funds eye Northern Rock
US investment funds Apollo Management and Blackstone have shown interest in buying out the crisis-hit British bank Northern Rock, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The two firms showed interest separately last week, the paper said, citing people close to the matter. It said the takeover approaches could prompt an auction for the ailing British lender. Two other US firms have reportedly been in detailed talks with the troubled bank: J.C. Flowers & Co and Cerberus, the paper said.

■ LABOR
Postal workers strike again
Postal workers started a second 48-hour strike yesterday as a dispute over pay and restructuring remained unresolved. Postal staff belonging to the Communication Workers Union walked out at 3am after weekend talks with management failed to break a long-standing deadlock. A similar strike was staged last week. Royal Mail employees have staged four national strikes and other forms of industrial action since the summer, when they rejected a 2.5 percent pay increase and the Royal Mail's modernization plans, which the union claims would cut 40,000 jobs.

■ AVIATION
Air India plans IPO
State-owned Air India will likely unload 15 percent of its equity in an initial public offering (IPO) when its merger with Indian Airlines is completed, the Press Trust of India reported yesterday. V. Thulasidas, chairman of the National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), the airlines' new parent company, said the government would make the final decision on the size of the IPO. But he told reporters his "personal view" was that NACIL would dispose of 15 percent of its equity, the Press Trust said. The government has said it is merging the two airlines in a bid to create a "world-class airline" that can compete globally and domestically.

■ TRADE
Chavez rethinks CAN
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that Caracas is considering rejoining the Andean Community (CAN) because leftist leaders in Bolivia and Ecuador who have resisted free-trade deals with the US could help to transform the regional bloc. Chavez, who pulled Venezuela out of the five-nation bloc last year after Peru and Colombia signed trade pacts with the US, said on his weekly broadcast program that he was studying "the possible path toward a new Andean Community." But he insisted the bloc should become "Bolivarian" -- a reference to his anti-US political movement named after 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar. "Changes in the CAN are necessary," he said.


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