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World Business Quick Take

■BANKING

Hua An to cover principal

A leading overseas fund for Chinese investors guaranteed by Lehman Brothers promised yesterday to pay back its clients’ principal despite the US investment bank’s collapse. The Hua An Fund Management Co (華安基金管理公司) said it would continue to manage the Hua An International Balanced Fund and avoid liquidation before the end of the investment term in October 2011. The company said earlier this week the fund had halted redemptions and would be “hugely impacted” by Lehman’s bankruptcy filing in New York, without disclosing a specific figure for potential losses.



■AUTOMOBILES

Isuzu may buy GM trucking

Struggling General Motors Corp is talking to Isuzu Motors about selling its truck business, in what would mark the first Japanese takeover of a business from the US Big Three, a report said yesterday. Isuzu, Japan’s second biggest truck maker, is “positive” about the deal, which would be worth tens of billions of yen, the Nikkei Shimbun said in its evening edition. But an Isuzu spokesman denied the report. “The company has not been approached by General Motors,” he said.



■SOFTWARE

Microsoft ‘violated laws’

Microsoft Corp violated Japan’s antitrust laws, a ruling by the country’s trade watchdog said. The computer software maker violated licensing agreements with Japanese makers, the Fair Trade Commission announced on its Web site, citing its ruling on Tuesday.



■ELECTRONICS

Toshiba expects losses

Toshiba Corp said yesterday that it expected to go into the red for the first half of the financial year as its computer chip business deteriorates. Toshiba said it now forecast a net loss of ¥50 billion (US$468 million) in the six months through September, compared with a previous expectation of a ¥15 billion profit. On an operating level, Toshiba slashed its forecast from a profit of ¥70 billion to a loss of ¥30 billion. For the full year, Toshiba said it expected net profit to drop by nearly half to ¥70 billion from an earlier forecast of ¥130 billion.



■MEDIA

Equity group withdraws offer

A group of private equity companies yesterday withdrew their offer for Informa PLC, the London-based publisher of Lloyd’s List maritime newspaper. “Following the board of Informa’s rejection of the consortium’s proposed offer, the consortium has decided to withdraw its proposal,” Providence Equity Partners Ltd, the Carlyle Group and the Blackstone Group said in a joint regulatory statement released to the London Stock Exchange. Informa turned down the private equity consortium’s offer of £1.9 billion (US$3.4 billion) on Sept. 4, saying that it significantly undervalued the company.



■INTERNET

Yahoo tests new homepage

Yahoo on Thursday began a promised homepage makeover intended to revitalize its popular but financially stumbling Web site. The pioneering California Internet firm is letting randomly chosen users in Britain, France, India and the US test a “next generation design” of a homepage used by more than 400,000 people worldwide. “We’re working on a new homepage that will help you get more out of the Internet, make more of your precious time, and make sense of all the things going on in your world,” Yahoo vice president of Front Doors said in an online posting.
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