RITE OF PASSAGE: After spending years gaining a foothold in China's banking market, four foreign banks obtained the green light to incorporate local subsidies
Citigroup, HSBC and other foreign banks marked their local incorporation in China yesterday, a rite of passage after years of biding their time on the sidelines of one of the world's fastest growing financial markets.

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Tribune Co has accepted a buyout offer from real estate investor Sam Zell in a deal valued at about US$8.2 billion, the media company said yesterday.

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AT LAST: After several years of modest growth, South Korea's economy, which is largely dependent on foreign trade, could finally have the means to reinvent itself
With just hours to go, the US and South Korea reached a FTA yesterday which scraps tariffs on a huge range of items but excludes rice, as Seoul had demanded.

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Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co agreed to acquire First Data Corp, the world's largest processor of credit-card payments for banks and merchants, for approximately US$29 billion.

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Confidence among Japanese manufacturers slipped last month for the first time in a year, a closely watched Bank of Japan survey released yesterday showed.

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■ TELCO
AT&T eyeing Telecom Italia
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