Business News

British regulator orders airports sale to break monopoly

London  - Britain's Competition Commission confirmed Thursday that two of London's airports must be sold to a new owner in order to break up the monopoly held by operator BAA and improve services for passengers.

The regulator said Gatwick and Stansted airports will have to change hands, as well as one airport in Scotland - either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

The announcement after a two-year investigation follows a recommendation made by the Commission last December to end the dominance of BAA in the running of airports.

The sale of Gatwick airport in London is already under way. BAA will retain control over Heathrow airport, the major international hub in London.

UBS to buy back bonds

UBS to buy back bondsZurich  - The Swiss bank UBS said Thursday it has made a tender offer worth up to 1 billion euros (1.34 billion dollars) to buy back bonds in an attempt to raise its Tier 1 regulatory capital ratio.

The offer pertains to four lower tier 2 bonds with maturity dates between November 2015 and September 2019 and a notional value of around 7 billion Swiss francs (6.15 billion dollars).

The bank said in a statement that the bonds were currently trading at a significant discount to their original issuance price.

Tier 1 capital ratio is a regulatory measure of a bank's financial stamina.

China rejects Coke 2.4 billion dollar bid for domestic juice maker

China rejects Coke 2.4 billion dollar bid for domestic juice makerBeijing, Mar. 19 : China has rejected Coca-Cola''s plan to acquire beverage maker China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd for 2.4 billion dollars, citing the country''s anti-monopoly law.

According to a China Daily report, the acquisition would have been the largest ever buyout of a Chinese company by a foreign rival.

Chinese government sources were quoted as saying that had the planned takeover gone through, it would have violated the provisions of the Anti-Monopoly Law.

Third undersea cable planned to bring faster internet to Asia

Taipei  - Several Asian countries plan to jointly build a third Asia-Pacific undersea cable to bring faster internet service to the region, Taiwan media reported Thursday.

The countries plan to jointly invest 500 million dollars to lay the Asia-Pacific Cable Network 3 (APCN3), according to the Economic Daily News and the Commercial Times, which cited unnamed Chunghwa Telecom Co sources.

The APCN3 would link Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The main companies involved in the venture - including Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, China's China Unicom Ltd and China Telecom Corp, Singapore's Starhub Ltd and Japan's KDDI Corp - were expected to sign a contract next month.

Swedes angered over management bonuses

Swedes angered over management bonusesStockholm  - Timing is of the essence - a lesson several big Swedish banking groups as well as private and government-run pension funds and corporations have learned in recent days.

And proposing large bonus payments to top management is simply not on amid daily reports of layoffs and financial turmoil.

Yet the proposals have been made - and in some case executed - to the surprise and anger of critics.

Vietnam blocks US manufacturer's products on cancer scare

Hanoi  - Large supermarkets in Vietnam have stopped selling Johnson & Johnson products on news that the company's baby shampoo sold in the US contained chemicals that could cause cancer, the supermarkets said Wednesday.

A US consumer group, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, reported this week that it had found formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane in several varieties of Johnson's baby shampoo. The chemicals are considered probable carcinogens, and are banned from cosmetics in some countries, but not in the US.

"We got the order to stop selling most Johnson & Johnson's products, except for makeup powder, in our supermarket chain on Tuesday," said Nguyen Tuyet Thu, a sales manager at Coopmart, one of Vietnam's largest domestic chains.

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