■BANKING
Mizuho to sell new shares
Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group said yesterday it would sell new shares worth more than US$6 billion to bolster its finances as it reported a big loss because of the financial crisis. Japan’s top banks were initially seen as relatively immune to a US-born credit crunch, but they have been badly burned by the financial crisis because they have a large exposure to the stock market. Mizuho said it would sell new shares worth up to ¥600 billion (US$6.2 billion) to help it through the financial turmoil. It also plans to sell preferred securities although the exact amount has not been decided. It announced a net loss of ¥588.8 billion for the year to March, in line with an initial estimate last month, against a year-earlier profit of ¥311.22 billion. Mizuho expects to return to the black this year with a net profit of ¥200 billion.
■ASSET MANAGEMENT
Barclays to sell BGI: report
British bank Barclays PLC is in talks to sell its asset management business, Barclays Global Investors (BGI), a source familiar with the matter said. The Financial Times yesterday reported that Barclays was discussing a sale of the business for up to US$10 billion to potential bidders including US money manager Blackrock. Barclays and Blackrock declined to comment. Barclays has already agreed the sale of exchange-traded funds unit iShares, part of BGI, for £3 billion (US$4.5 billion) to buyout firm CVC Capital Partners. Barclays will need to pay CVC a US$175 million break-up fee if sells iShares to another bidder.
■TEXTILES
Nike plans to cut 1,750 jobs
Shoe and apparel company Nike Inc said on Thursday it will cut about 1,750 jobs worldwide, or 5 percent of its global work force. About 500 of the jobs lost will be at Nike’s world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. The company did not specify what departments the cuts would be in. Nike had announced in February that it would cut jobs as part of a realignment of its business. In March, it said it was reducing layers of management, among other organizational changes. The company plans to complete the reductions in the coming weeks.
■INVESTMENT
Temasek sells BOA stake
Singaporean state investment company Temasek sold its stake in Bank of America Corp (BOA), a move that likely added to large losses last year from its investments in US and European banks. Temasek held 188.8 million BOA shares in January, worth about US$2.6 billion. A Temasek spokeswoman yesterday declined to comment on the price the fund sold its shares for or the timing of the sale. Temasek said its investment portfolio fell about US$39 billion, or 31 percent, between March and November of last year to US$85 billion. Temasek also has large stakes in other financial companies such as Standard Chartered PLC, DBS Group Holdings Ltd and Barclays PLC.
■COMPUTERS
HP recalls batteries
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is recalling some 70,000 batteries for notebook computers because of a fire hazard, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday. The commission said the lithium-ion batteries being recalled were used in HP and Compaq notebook computers sold between August 2007 and March last year and were made in China. The commission provided a list of the computer models using the batteries on its Web site, CPSC.gov. It said HP was providing free replacement batteries.
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