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World Business Quick Take

■ FINANCE

Aegon to tap Dutch funds

Aegon NV, the owner of US insurer Transamerica Corp, received a 3 billion euro (US$3.8 billion) lifeline from the Netherlands, making it the second Dutch financial company to draw on the government’s bailout program. Aegon will issue 750 million non-voting securities at 4 euros apiece to Vereniging Aegon, its largest shareholder, The Hague-based insurer said in a statement distributed yesterday through PRNewswire. Vereniging Aegon will in turn be funded by the Dutch State, it said. Aegon follows ING Groep NV in making use of the 20 billion euros that the Netherlands set aside for financial firms on Oct. 10. ING, the biggest Dutch financial-services firm, will receive half of the pool by selling non-voting preferred shares to the government.



■ FINANCE

Visa, MasterCard to pay up

Credit card issuers Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc said on Monday they would pay up to US$2.75 billion to Discover Financial Services LLC to settle an antitrust suit. Visa of San Francisco will pay US$1.89 billion, and MasterCard of Purchase, New York, will pay US$862.5 million. Morgan Stanley, the former parent of Discover, will refund US$100 million to Visa and MasterCard under separate agreements. In 2004, Riverwoods, Illinois-based Discover filed a lawsuit against MasterCard and Visa saying they had harmed its business by preventing their member banks from issuing credit cards for Discover’s network. Discover said it would receive about US$862 million of the settlement in the current fiscal quarter and up to about US$472 million per quarter next year. MasterCard settled a similar suit with American Express in June for a maximum of US$1.8 billion.



■ AVIATION

Citigroup pushes airlines

Citigroup Inc recommended investors should buy airline shares, including Air France-KLM Group, citing the “strong financial position” of Europe’s largest carrier. “With 5.5 billion euros [US$6.9 billion] of cash and 1.5 billion euros on undrawn facilities, Air France has no need to raise new debt for over three years and is well within covenants,” London-based analyst Andrew Light wrote in a note to clients. Citigroup upgraded Air France, Ryanair Holdings PLC, Europe’s largest discount airline, and SAS Group, owner of Scandinavian Airlines, to “buy” from “hold.”



■ FINLAND

Retail sales pick up

The nation’s retail sales growth rebounded last month after slowing the month before as wage increases boosted spending. The value of retail sales at market prices rose an annual 6 percent, compared with 3.7 percent the month before and 2.9 percent in September last year, Helsinki-based Statistics Finland said on its Web site yesterday, citing preliminary figures. Wage increases that unions agreed to last year lifted pay by 5 percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, the statistics office said on Oct. 15.



■ ECONOMY

‘Anti-crisis’ menu offered

A restaurant in Gijon in northern Spain has started offering a lunch time “anti-crisis” menu for just one euro to help its customers in the industrial port face up to the sharp economic slowdown. Waiting times for a seat were long last Thursday as the 49-seat establishment served nearly 200 people. For one euro, customers were served seafood soup, ribs with rice, chicken or anchovies with salad, along with bread, a drink and dessert. Lunch time menus in Spain usually cost around 10 euros.


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