Mon, Aug 11, 2003 page12

• World Business Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ Banking

  Banks join forces

  Megabank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp plans to establish a corporate revitalization firm that integrates the expertise of major Japanese and US firms, a news report said yesterday. It is in talks with US financial giant Goldman Sachs and major Japanese brokerage Daiwa Securities SMBC, which specialize in revitalization, on the tie-up, the Yomiuri Shimbun said citing banking sources. Sumitomo Mitsui, which wants to speed up corporate revitalization and bad-loan disposal, hopes to benefit from the extensive expertise of the firms in merger and acquisitions, and the securitisation of bad loans, the newspaper said. If an agreement was reached, Sumitomo Mitsui would include the envisioned tie-up in its plan to improve its earnings which it will submit next month to the Financial Services Agency, responsible for inspecting and supervising the banking sector, the Yomiuri said.

  ■ Currencies

  Sweden's PM pushes euro

  Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said on Saturday Swedes should vote "Yes" in a forthcoming referendum on joining the euro to help counterbalance the economic supremacy of the US. "The fact that we are cooperating against currency speculators [by dealing in only one currency] does not mean that we are entering a superstate. It means that we are putting a halt to the emerging superstate, which is controlled by the multinational companies," Persson said. "I am a radical, I want a counterbalance to the global capital which we lack today and for that purpose we should use and develop the EU to the best of our abilities," he said in a speech in the heavy industry town of Skelleftea almost 1,000 km north of Stock-holm. Persson is trying hard to persuade Swedes to vote to join the euro in their September 14 referendum but the pro-euro lobby is far behind in opinion polls.

  ■ Beverags

  Pepsi wants report blocked

  PepsiCo Inc asked an Indian court to block the release of a report by a New Delhi-based research institute, which claims beverages sold by the company contained traces of pesticides. Pepsi and bottler Pearl Drinks submitted the appeal on Friday to the Delhi High Court, AFP said, citing the petition. The findings of the report were released at a press conference on Tuesday. The court will hear Pepsi's appeal tomorrow. The Center for Science and Environment study found traces of lindane, DDT and malathion in 12 soft-drink brands. In its submission, Pepsi said the research methods used by the institution were suspect and urged the court to direct the government not to base policy on it, AFP said. Both Coca-Cola Co and PepsiCo last week disputed the study's claims that traces of pesticide in the drinks exceeded European standards by as much as 45 times.

  ■ Telecom

  Vodafone buys Singlepoint

  Vodafone Group Plc, the world's biggest mobile-phone company, plans to buy Singlepoint, an independent mobile service provider in the UK owned by British entrepreneur John Caudwell, for ?L400 million (US$641 million), the Sunday Telegraph reported. Singlepoint buys airtime from network operators to resell it to its 1.4 million customers, and profits from as much as 25 percent of clients' bills, the paper said, without saying how it obtained the information.
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