Commerzbank sells off Kleinwort

Germany's Commerzbank has announced the sale of its UK wealth management arm Kleinwort Benson, less than one year after buying the division.

Belgian investment group RHJ International is paying £225m for the business in a deal which should be completed early next year.

RHJ said it planned to use Kleinwort as an "overarching brand for its financial businesses going forward."

Commerzbank acquired Kleinwort when it bought Dresdner Bank in January.

In August, Commerzbank reported a net loss of 763m euros ($1.1bn; £708m) for the April to June period, a slight improvement on the 861m-euro loss it made in the previous quarter.

The results were hit by a charges of 216m euros for integrating Dresdner.

Commerzbank says the total cost of integrating Dresdner will be 2bn euros in 2009.

The bank does not expect to return to profit until 2011.

Oil higher in Asian trade amid dollar weakness

Oil rose further in Asian trade on Wednesday, extending overnight gains after the dollar fell to a new 2009 low against the euro, analysts said.

Renewed hopes of better energy demand as the global economic recovery continues and the arrival of cold weather in the United States, the world's largest oil user, also lent support to crude prices, they said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery rose 70 cents to USD 74.85 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for November delivery advanced 54 cents to USD 72.94 a barrel.

Expectations that the dollar will continue to languish against the euro and other major currencies will boost the crude market, analysts said.

"We expect a further fall of the US currency over the next two weeks," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist with SJS Markets financial services firm in Hong Kong.

The euro reached USD 1.4876 during intra-day trading Tuesday, its highest level since August 2008, before easing to USD 1.4852 in late US trade.

With little reprieve seen for the dollar, investors have sought to protect themselves against the greenback's fall by buying hard assets such as oil and other commodities.


A struggling greenback tends to boost crude prices particularly because the dollar-denominated commodity becomes cheaper for foreign buyers holding stronger currencies.

Andrew Yule exits JV; sells 26% in Phoenix Yule for Rs 63 cr

The government approved selling of the entire 26 per cent stake held by state-owned engineering firm Andrew Yule & Co in Phoenix Yule Ltd for Rs 62.82 crore to Continental ContiTech.

Phoenix Yule Ltd is a joint venture between Andrew Yule & Co Ltd (AYCL) and Germany's Phoenix Aktiengesellschaft and is one of the largest manufacturers of conveyor belts in India.



While AYCL held 26 per cent stake in the JV, the rest is owned by the German partner.



The valuation of shares have been approved at a rate of Rs 49.50 per share for over 1.19 crore shares, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday after the Cabinet meeting.



"Funds raised by way of disinvestment of AYCL shares in PYL will go towards repayment of a part of interest-free government of India loan of Rs 87.06 crore, which was extended to AYCL as a part of the restructuring package approved in 2007," Soni said.



The Rs 62.82 crore consideration also includes an additional compensation of Rs 3.69 crore, she added.



Continental ContiTech is a part of the German engineering and automotive group Continental.



The Phoenix Yule Ltd was formed on 19th November, 1998.



To implement the decision of the Cabinet dated 22nd February, 2007, an Inter-Ministerial Group headed by Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, DHI was constituted to initiate the disinvestment process of AYCL's entire stake in PYL.



Also, to recommend the valuation of share price of PYL as per the terms laid down in JV signed between AYCL and PHX.



Kolkata-based AYCL, a public sector undertaking under the Department of Heavy Industry, is engaged in manufacturing of industrial fans, tea processing machinery, industrial pollution control equipment and system and allied products.



As on 31st March, 2008, AYCL had 15,754 regular employees.

Pound hit by falling UK inflation

A key measure of inflation has fallen to its lowest level since September 2004, official statistics show, further weakening the value of sterling.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) dropped to an annual rate of 1.1% in September from 1.6% in August.

Meanwhile, the Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation measure, which includes mortgage interest payments and housing costs, fell, to -1.4% from -1.3%.

The pound fell 0.5% against the euro to a six-month low of 1.0628 euros.

It also fell to a five-month low against the dollar of $1.5730.

AIG sells off its Taiwan business

Insurer AIG has said it is selling its Taiwanese life insurance business to an investor group for $2.15bn (£1.4bn).

AIG will transfer its 97.5% stake in Nan Shan, Taiwan's third-biggest life insurer, to a consortium led by Hong Kong's Primus Financial.

AIG is selling assets in an effort to repay US government aid. It was bailed out in 2008 at a cost of $182.5bn.

It made a $1.82bn profit in the three months to June, after a loss of $5.4bn in the same period of 2008.

It was the first quarterly profit since 2007 for AIG, which is now 80% state-owned.

Nan Shan has four million customers in Taiwan, giving it a market share of 10%.

Its current management team will remain in place after the deal and the firm's existing brand will be retained.

As well as Primus, the consortium also includes Hong Kong investment firm China Strategic Holdings.

Apple director quits Google board

Internet giant Google has announced the resignation of one of its directors, Arthur Levinson, who is also on the board of computer maker Apple.

It comes two months after Google chief executive Eric Schmidt quit the Apple board because Google's interests were increasingly competing with Apple's.

The move was welcomed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which has been probing overlapping board memberships.

The two firms used to be seen as allies against the dominance of Microsoft.

However, they have started competing directly in recent years in areas such as mobile phones.

Microsoft readies bumper update

Microsoft will issue its biggest ever security update on 13 October.

The update will include 13 bulletins that between them tackle 34 vulnerabilities.

Microsoft said that eight of the bulletins were rated as critical - the most serious sort of vulnerability.

The security patches will close loopholes in many different programs including different editions of Windows, Internet Explorer and some elements of Office.

One update, rated as critical, tackles a loophole in Internet Explorer 8 running under Windows 7. The next version of Microsoft's operating system is due to be released on 22 October.

Most people will get the updates automatically but links to download them can also be found on Microsoft's security pages. Once applied to a PC, the machine will need to be re-started before the fixes take effect.

In a blog posting giving an outline of the updates, Jerry Bryant, a Microsoft security expert, said two of the fixes were for problems flagged up in earlier advisories.

One of those loopholes, for the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) bundled in with Microsoft's Internet Information Server, is already being exploited by some hi-tech criminals.

Windows is by far the most popular target for cyber criminals and the vast majority of the millions of malicious programs, including worms and trojans, are aimed at the operating system.

Prior to the bumper October security update, Microsoft's biggest every update was released in June 2009. That package of 10 fixes tackled 31 vulnerabilities.

Microsoft typically issues its updates on the second Tuesday of every month. It started this regular monthly update system in late 2003.

First woman wins economics Nobel

Elinor Ostrom has become the first woman to win the Nobel prize for economics since it began in 1968.

Ms Ostrom won the prize with fellow American Oliver Williamson for their separate work in economic governance.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is the last of the six Nobel prizes announced this year. Since 1980, it has gone to Americans 24 times.

Last Friday, US President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize - though this aroused some controversy.

Oil rises above USD 72 ahead of US company results

Oil prices rose above USD 72 a barrel on Monday in Asia as investors looked to a slew of US corporate earnings reports this week for signs of economic recovery..

Benchmark crude for November delivery was up 44 cents at USD 72.21 by midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 8 cents to USD 71.77 on Friday.

Crude investors will be eyeing third quarter company results and forecasts for the rest of the year for clues about the strength of the US economy.



Top banks JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. report this week along with Google Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., Intel Corp., IBM Corp., General Electric Co., and Johnson & Johnson.



A more optimistic crude demand forecast by the International Energy Agency on Friday helped boost trader confidence.



The Paris-based IEA, which advises oil-consuming countries, said demand will likely reach 86.1 million barrels a day in 2010, up 1.7 percent from this year.

Kuwaiti oil minister Sheik Ahmed Al Abdullah Al Sabah told the state news agency on Sunday that an oil price range between USD 60 to USD 80 a barrel is acceptable -- echoing earlier remarks by Saudi Arabia.

The two Middle Eastern countries are members of the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about a third of the world's oil production.

In London, Brent crude rose 48 cents to USD 70.48 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Weak dollar improves US trade gap

The US trade deficit shrank unexpectedly in August as the weak dollar boosted exports, according to figures from the Commerce Department.

The deficit, which is the difference between US imports and exports, fell to $30.7bn (£19.3bn) from a revised estimate of $31.9bn in July.

Exports rose slightly on the back of the weak dollar while imports fell.

The dollar has slipped recently, with traders moving into other currencies as the global economy begins to recover.

"I would interpret a flattening out of the trade deficit showing a broader stability in the economy," said Keith Hembre at FAF Advisors.

Imports in August totalled $158.9bn, compared with $159.8bn in July. Exports totalled $128.2bn, compared with $128bn in July.

The slight fall in imports reflects a small reduction in demand for goods among US consumers.

When the US economy begins to grow more strongly, this demand should pick up and the deficit could grow again.

GM agrees Chinese sale of Hummer

General Motors (GM) has agreed to sell its iconic Hummer brand to Chinese firm Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery for an undisclosed fee.

The two parties had been in talks about the sale for a number of months.

GM is in the process of selling and winding up a number of brands as it looks to reorganise after emerging from bankruptcy protection in July.

At the start of this month, the troubled carmaker announced it would be winding down its Saturn brand.

This was after the proposed sale to Penske Automotive Group collapsed.

GM has already announced that it is discontinuing the Pontiac brand, and is close to finalising the sale of its European brands Saab, Opel and Vauxhall. GM plans to reinvent itself by concentrating on fewer brands following bankruptcy protection, made necessary after car sales plummeted during the downturn.