Munich - German electronics company Siemens AG Tuesday finalized plans to quit computer producer Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

Joint venture partner Fujitsu will take over Siemens' 50-per-cent share for a price of 450 million euros (567 million dollars), the company formally announced.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers was founded in 1999 to integrate the firms9 personal computer and server businesses in Europe. The joint-venture contract was due to run out next year.

Bangkok - The ninth triennial German Technology Symposium & Exhibition will be held in Bangkok next week despite the gloom created by the US financial meltdown and signs of recession in the US and Europe, organizers said Tuesday.

"Economic crisis or not, people want new technology," said Stefan Buerkle, executive director of the German Thai Chamber of Commerce (GTCC), the chief organizer of the event.

The ninth triennial German Technology Symposium & Exhibition will be held as planned at Central World in Bangkok from November 8 to 11 with some 140 exhibitors and an expected 15,000 visitors from Thailand and neighbouring countries, said Buerkle.

Frankfurt - Shares in Commerzbank AG bounded ahead Monday after Germany's second biggest bank said it was tapping the government's bank rescue fund for an 8.2 billion-euros (10.6 billion dollars) capital injection after posting a third-quarter loss.

The announcement it was to receive aid from the 470-billion-euro fund to strengthen its capital base came as the bank unveiled a 285- million-euro net loss in the three months to the end of September in the wake of the world financial crisis.

The third-quarter loss compared to a 339-million-euro net profit in the same period last year.

Oslo - Norwegian energy giant Statoil Hydro's third-quarter net income fell 57 per cent, the group said Monday, citing a stronger US dollar rate that pushed up tax rates.

Net income for the quarter was 6.3 billion kroner (937 million dollars), compared to 14.6 billion kroner in the corresponding business period of 2007.

Net operating income increased 31 per cent to 47 billion kroner, while turnover was up 35 per cent to 170 billion kroner, the group said.

London - Leading budget airline Ryanair said Monday the steep rise in the oil price had led to a 47-per-cent fall in net profits in the six months to the end of September.

The Irish carrier said net profits between April and September stood at 169 million pounds (277 million dollars).

Chief executive Michael O'Leary said he was confident the profits would recover if the oil price, currently at 80 US dollars a barrel, continued to fall.

"We have a significant cost advantage over our competitors many of whom have hedged fuel next year at significantly higher levels than current market prices," O'Leary said Monday.

Yangon - Trade between Myanmar and China increased 60 per cent in the past fiscal year, ranking China the second-largest trading partner for the country after Thailand, news reports said Monday.

Trade between Myanmar and China reached 2.4 billion dollars for the year that ended March 31, compared with 1.5 billion the previous fiscal year, Myanmar's prime minister, General Thein Sein, said last week in Nanning, China at a summit between China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member