■BANKING
UK bailout hits £850 billion
The UK’s support for its banks has hit £850 billion (US$1.4 trillion) in the wake of the global financial crisis, a watchdog report said yesterday, amid tensions over performance pay for senior bankers. The National Audit Office said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government was justified to spend the “unprecedented” amount on rescuing the banks, which went into meltdown after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2007.
■FINANCE
TSE to pay compensation
A Japanese court yesterday ordered the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) to pay compensation of more than US$120 million over its failure to stop a massive trade blunder in December 2005. The lawsuit against Asia’s biggest bourse was filed by Mizuho Securities — part of Japan’s second-biggest bank, Mizuho Financial Group — which demanded ¥41.5 billion (US$470 million) in compensation. The TSE has admitted that a fault in its system prevented a Mizuho Securities trader from canceling the erroneous order, caused by a simple typing error that left the firm saddled with a loss of ¥40.7 billion.
■BEVERAGES
Suntory buys Pepsi bottler
Japanese beverage maker Suntory said yesterday it had bought a Pepsi bottler in the US state of South Carolina for US$113 million as part of its global expansion efforts. Privately owned Suntory said its US-based joint venture subsidiary Pepsi Bottling Venture would pay US$113 million to buy the assets of Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Conway-Myrtle Beach, Inc. “We believe the purchase will create synergy effects and benefit our North American operations,” a Suntory spokesman said. “This is part of our long history of expansion efforts in foreign markets.”
■SOUTH KOREA
Economy expands 3.2%
South Korea’s economy expanded 3.2 percent in the third quarter, the central bank said yesterday, a better performance than initially estimated amid stronger growth in manufacturing, exports and services. The revised figure for the three months ended on Sept. 30 compared with the previous quarter remains the country’s strongest growth in more than seven years since an expansion of 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2002, Bank of Korea figures show.
■ENERGY
China signs Exxon LNG deal
State-owned Sinopec Corp (中國石化) said yesterday it had signed a 20-year contract with Exxon Mobil Corp to buy gas from Papua New Guinea in the latest of a flurry of foreign deals to secure fuel for China’s booming economy. The liquefied natural gas will come from a project being developed by Exxon Mobil and other investors in Papua New Guinea’s central highlands. Sinopec gave no financial details. The contract calls for Sinopec to buy some 2 million tonnes of gas per year, which it will import through a terminal in China’s eastern port of Qingdao.
■TECHNOLOGY
Cisco to take over Tandberg
US networking giant Cisco said on Thursday it planned to go ahead with its US$3.4 billion takeover of Norwegian video conferencing company Tandberg. Cisco said in a statement that it controls approximately 89 percent of the outstanding shares of Tandberg and had decided to waive the condition that it control 90 percent.
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