■FINANCE
Goldman to bid for iShares
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs is working on a bid for iShares, the asset management business being auctioned by British bank Barclays, newspaper reports said yesterday. The Financial Times said the business could be valued at up to US$6.5 billion, while the Daily Telegraph put the figure at US$5 billion. Other bidders include Bain Capital and a consortium led by buy-out firm Hellman & Friedman, they said. Barclays has fared better in the financial crisis than many of its British banking rivals, but said on March 16 it had approached “a number of potentially interested parties” about selling iShares.
■ELECTRONICS
Sanyo predicts loss
Japan’s Sanyo Electric Co said yesterday it expected a loss in the financial year ending this month, scrapping an earlier forecast that it would break even. Sanyo, which is being bought by its bigger rival Panasonic Corp, blamed the worse-than-expected performance on the cost of restructuring its businesses, in particular the ailing semiconductor division. The company now expects an annual net loss of ¥90 billion (US$918 million), compared with an earlier forecast of zero profits. It sees an operating loss of ¥30 billion, against an earlier projection of a ¥30 billion profit.
■ENERGY
Suncor to buy Petro-Canada
Suncor Energy Inc will acquire Petro-Canada for C$19.12 billion (US$15.5 billion), uniting two of Canada’s biggest oil companies as the nation’s energy industry retrenches. If the deal announced on Monday is approved, the combined company would be the largest oil company in Canada and have a market capitalization of about C$48 billion. That’s much smaller than global heavyweights such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, which boast market capitalizations of US$326.6 billion and US$55.97 billion respectively, but the company would have some of the same benefits of scale.
■TRADE
South Korea, EU reach deal
South Korea and the EU have reached a tentative trade deal after almost two years of talks and will try to settle outstanding issues early next month, the two sides said yesterday. They “reached provisional agreement on almost all pending issues” during negotiations which began on Monday, Seoul’s foreign and trade ministry said in a statement. They failed to reach a deal on some contentious matters such as rules of origin for products, it said, adding final agreement would be sought at trade ministers’ talks in London on April 2. When concluded, the agreement would eliminate some 97 percent of tariffs on bilateral trade over the next five years, EU negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero told a press conference.
■MINING
Iron ore prices to drop
Iron ore prices are certain to fall this year, the first decline in seven years, but not by the 50 percent suggested by some steel makers, Rio Tinto said yesterday. “We need to recognise the fundamentals of the market and the market would show that it does need a downward adjustment this year,” Sam Walsh, head of Rio’s iron ore division, said on the sidelines of a mining conference. But given the potential for a recovery in industrial demand at some stage and indications from the spot ore market, prices don’t need to drop by half, Walsh said, breaking a tradition of keeping silent on price issues until talks are concluded.
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