Wed, Sep 10, 2008 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■BEVERAGES

  Foreigners eye Coke bid

  Foreign firms are keeping a close watch on the fate of Coca-Cola’s bid for Chinese juice producer Huiyuan (匯源) as suspicions about economic nationalism increase, a European business group said yesterday. “Economic nationalism appears to be a growing concern,” said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Chamber of Commerce, at the launch of the 2008 European Business in China Position Paper in Beijing. “Of course, M&A [merger and acquisition] is a very difficult point,” he said. “Therefore we do watch the ongoing Coca-Cola Huiyuan case very closely to see if that is done by the law.”

  ■SHIPBUILDING

  South Korea tops orders

  South Korean yards won half of the world’s shipbuilding orders in the first half of this year, strengthening the country’s dominance in the industry, the government said yesterday. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the shipbuilding industry said yards secured orders for 12.4 million compensated gross tonnes, or 50.6 percent of the world total. It said overall global demand fell sharply compared with last year, but the proportion of orders won by local companies increased. Last year South Korea secured 38.9 percent of all orders placed against 37.3 percent for its main rival China. In the first half China’s share dipped to 34.3 percent.

  ■ENERGY

  BG admits defeat

  British gas firm BG Group conceded yesterday that its hostile bid for Australia’s Origin Energy would fail because it would not raise its offer after Origin teamed up with US oil giant ConocoPhillips. “The price implied by this newly announced joint venture is higher than BG Group is able to justify,” BG Group chief executive Frank Chapman said in a statement. “We have therefore decided not to extend or amend our offer, which we expect will now lapse” when its term expires on Sept. 26.

  ■FINANCE

  IMF deputy backs takeover

  The US government’s move to take control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will help shore up the housing market, the banking system and the wider economy, a senior IMF official said yesterday. In the text of a speech in Frankfurt, IMF first deputy managing director John Lipksy also said the two mortgage giants would need to be restructured over the longer term. “The intervention in [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] and the broader support to the mortgage market should stabilize [their] balance sheets and the funding of mortgages in the near term,” Lipsky said. “This will help underpin the US housing market, the banking system, and the broader economy.”

  ■ENERGY

  Shell, Iraq to form venture

  Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed on a gas joint venture with Iraq worth up to US$4 billion, the Iraqi oil ministry and the Financial Times said yesterday. The deal, which will see the gas extracted from Iraqi fields being both sold in Iraq and abroad, will be signed next month, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said. Shell will become the first Western oil group to sign a deal with Baghdad since the US-led invasion of 2003, with a venture the Financial Times estimated at about US$4 billion. Iraq’s Cabinet has agreed to the contract, which gives the state-owned Southern Oil Company 51 percent and Shell 49 percent in the venture.
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