Sat, Dec 24, 2011 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  INVESTMENT

  CIC to get extra funding

  China Investment Corp (CIC, 中國投資公司), China’s sovereign wealth fund, will receive as much as US$50 billion in additional funding, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Government agencies reached an agreement that will allocate cash from China’s US$3.2 trillion foreign exchange reserves each year, and “chart the future” of domestic unit Central Huijin Investment Ltd (中央匯金). CIC declined to comment on the report when contacted by reporters. Chairman Lou Jiwei (樓繼偉) deployed almost all the fund’s cash last year as an improving world economy prompted a 10 percent gain in the MSCI World Index. Net income rose 24 percent while the Beijing-based fund posted an 11.7 percent return on its overseas investments, according to its July annual report. CIC will receive additional funding annually based on its performance in the previous year, according to a report by Weekly on Stocks that was posted to Web sites including that of the China Securities Journal and Sohu.com in June. The fund may get US$50 billion as the first batch of new capital this year, the report said, without saying where it got the information.

  INVESTMENT

  NYSE Euronext sale okayed

  Deutsche Boerse won US antitrust approval to buy NYSE Euronext yesterday in a US$9 billion deal that has hit serious antitrust headwinds in Europe. The US Department of Justice said on Thursday that the deal, which was announced in February, won approval on condition that a Deutsche Boerse subsidiary, the International Securities Exchange, divest its 31.5 percent interest in Direct Edge. Direct Edge is the fourth-largest US exchange, the department said. Despite the divestiture, Deutsche Boerse and NYSE must continue to provide some services to Direct Edge, the department said. In Europe, there have been weeks of negotiations during which EU antitrust staff made clear their reservations about approving a combination of Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex and NYSE Euronext’s Liffe on concerns that the merged entity would have a monopoly over European listed derivatives trading.

  RUSSIA

  Refinancing rate cut

  Russia’s central bank yesterday cut its main refinancing rate for the first time since June of last year, citing uncertainties about global economic growth. The bank said its cut of 25 basis points to 8 percent was “based on the assessment of inflationary risks and risks to stable economic growth, including those caused by uncertainty over the foreign economic situation.” It marks the first time that rates have come down in Russia since June 1 last year and underscores concerns over how Europe’s sovereign debt problems may affect the domestic financial sector.

  INSURANCE

  AIG CEO wants to stay on

  American International Group Inc (AIG) chief executive officer Robert Benmosche, who’s been treated for cancer, may stay in the top job longer than previously planned. Benmosche, 67, has said he’d like to remain CEO past next year, according to an e-mailed statement yesterday from Mark Herr, a spokesman for the New York-based insurer. Benmosche took the CEO post in 2009 and had previously said he planned to complete three years on the job. “He has said he would like to, health-willing, continue to lead AIG past 2012,” Herr said. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Benmosche’s plans.
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