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World Business Quick Take

■ BEVERAGES

French buys Fuji vineyard

A top French wine baron said on Thursday he had acquired a vineyard on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan, becoming the first French wine player to set up shop in the country. "I have just bought a little six-hectare domain, to produce a high-end white wine," in association with a Japanese winegrower, said Bernard Magrez, former head of the wine and spirits group William Pitters. Magrez, who owns 35 vineyards on four continents did not reveal the value of the deal but said he hoped it would help boost his sales in Japan.



■ FINANCE

SWF diversifying assets

State-backed sovereign wealth funds (SWF) are likely to diversify their investments and move away from US dollar-denominated assets, a World Bank official said yesterday. Central banks are likely to follow suit, shifting away from the US dollar over the next "three to five years," World Bank principal investment officer Arjan Berkelaar told a business conference in Sydney. SWFs, which are either government-owned or controlled, will increasingly switch from high-grade fixed income assets such as government bonds to equities and broader based assets, such as infrastructure and commodities, he said.



■ AVIATION

Talks on takeover of Alitalia

Air France-KLM is holding firm on a plan to lay off 2,100 Alitalia workers but will extend benefits to more employees under a revised takeover plan for Alitalia, ANSA news agency reported yesterday. "We cannot go further without reopening discussion of the very fundamentals of our project for Alitalia," Air France-KLM chief Jean-Cyril Spinetta wrote of the plan submitted overnight to the unions representing Alitalia employees, ANSA said. A first round of talks with the unions ended in disagreement last week. "The social measures accompanying the industrial plan are built to alleviate the more difficult situations of layoffs and offer everyone a lifeline," Spinetta said. The unions fear that job cuts could reach up to 7,000.



■ INSURANCE

Allianz mulls merger

The German insurance company Allianz is mulling contributing its banking unit, Dresdner Bank, to a three-way merger that would include Commerzbank and Deutsche Postbank, a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report said yesterday. The discussions are still at an early stage, however, and negotiations are not currently underway, it said, without naming its source. A combined bank would have clout similar to that of the biggest German bank, Deutsche Bank. Under a three-way set-up, Dresdner Bank would be transferred to Commerzbank as an asset and then the new institution would acquire Postbank, which is due to be sold in the next few months, it said.



■ AUTOMOBILES

Mitsubishi Australia closing

Mitsubishi's Australian factory had built its last cars -- three of them for charities and one for permanent display -- and was to close yesterday after 28 years in operation. About 500 workers were to leave the assembly factory yesterday; 430 will stay on for a year to decommission the plant and produce a stockpile of spare parts. "While this is a very sad and poignant day, everyone at Mitsubishi has focused on all the good times we have experienced and the absolute sense of family and community we have built here," president and CEO Rob McEniry said.
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