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World Business Quick Take

■AUTOMOBILES

BMW invests in S Africa

German automotive giant BMW announced yesterday it was investing 2.2 billion rand (US$220 million) to build its new 3 Series in South Africa, after obtaining assurances from the South African government on continued manufacturing incentives. Announcing the investment in Johannesburg, BMW South Africa’s managing director Bodo Donauer said: “It will secure BMW car production in South Africa for the foreseeable future.” From 60,000 vehicles a year, BMW South Africa’s production will jump to 87,000 vehicles. From its plant outside Pretoria BMW SA exports to the US, Japan, Australia and other leading car markets as well as sub-Saharan Africa.



■RETAIL

Gazprom to sell groceries

Russian energy giant Gazprom is set to open a chain of supermarkets, which would become the country’s fifth-biggest food retailer, the Kommersant daily reported yesterday. The chain would be formed on the basis of 400 stores and cafeterias which presently serve only Gazprom employees, the newspaper said, citing a company which is organizing the rebranding campaign. “The plan was to further expand the chain by opening new sites,” Irina Vedenetskaya, executive director of the Coruna branding agency, told Kommersant in an article headlined “Gaz-food.” Vedenetskaya said her agency had worked out a rebranding campaign where the company stores would become a chain called “Naraskhvat,” a Russian expression which can be translated as “to sell like hot cakes.”



■INSURANCE

Aviva to complete IPO

Aviva PLC, the UK’s second-biggest insurer by market value, expects to complete an initial public offering (IPO) of its Dutch insurance unit next month. More information about the proposed transaction is expected to be published in a prospectus this month, the London-based insurer said in a statement yesterday. On that basis, the IPO would be completed next month, Aviva said. Aviva is selling part of its 92 percent holding in Delta Lloyd Group, which traces its roots back to 1807, to raise cash. The company plans to sell a minority of its stake, it said today. Aviva said on Thursday it could sell 30 percent of the business.



■EQUITIES

Strategists retain ‘hold’

Credit Suisse Group AG strategists reiterated a recommendation to hold more global equities than are reflected in benchmarks and raised their earnings-per-share estimate for next year for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to US$76 from US$71. The S&P 500 could end this year at 1,100 because a growing US economy and expanding earnings will spur investors to allocate more money to equities, the strategists wrote in a report yesterday.



■BANKING

Standard adds executives

Standard Chartered PLC, the London-based bank that makes most of its money in emerging markets, added executives in equity sales and research to its expanding Asian operations. Tim Andrew and David Murray, formerly of Deutsche Bank, will join Standard Chartered as global head of cash equities and global head of equities research respectively, an internal memo said on Friday. The appointments are the latest step in the lender’s plans to bolster its Asian operations. The bank completed the acquisition of Cazenove Asia Ltd from JPMorgan Cazenove Ltd in January to help it build an equity capital markets and institutional brokerage business.
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