Mitsubishi settles row with Daimler
Frankfurt: DaimlerChrysler and Mitsubishi Motors have entered into deal to settle the row over cover-upsof defects in the Mitsubishi Fuso trucks unit.

According to the deal, Mitsubishi will give DaimlerChrysler an unspecified cash payment plus another 20 per cent stake in Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus. This will raise Daimler's stake in Fuso to 85 per cent.

A source familiar with the negotiations said the settlement was worth around euro 500m ($670m). DaimlerChrysler refused to comment on the scope of the deal pending a review by internal auditors.

An euro 500m payoff it considers is more than enough to compensate Daimler for the e475m in charges it took for the recall costs, disruptions and image damage caused by years of deliberate cover-ups under previous Fuso management.

Fuso, an unlisted company spun off from Mitsubishi in '03, had to recall more than 950,000 vehicles after admitting it hid information on defects from authorities for years.
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China attracts NYSE, Nasdaq, LSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq are eyeing China and have applied to open offices in the country as competition has increased from stock exchanges in London and Asia.

Chinese companies provided the bulk of the Nasdaq's international listings last year.

Now the China Construction Bank, one of the country's big four state banks, is coming out with a $5 billion-$10 billion IPO later this year and appears to be shunning New York because of the high cost of meeting the Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, which sets tough corporate governance rules.

The London Stock Exchange in particular has aggressively started courting Chinese companies for initial public offerings since the passage in the US of the legislation.

The LSE, which opened a representative office in Hong Kong, with five staff to service companies, has been trying to attract Chinese companies to both its main list and to its Alternative Investment Market for smaller businesses with some success as Air China decided to list stock in London in December.

There are 17 mainland Chinese companies listed on the NYSE with nine from Hong Kong and five from Taiwan. London has six Chinese companies on the main board and five on AIM with about 10 more in the pipeline.
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Cellphone sales fastest in Africa
Lagos: A study carried out by the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a network of 600 research fellows based in Europe and beyond, and published on the website of British mobile firm Vodafone, says Africa has been the world's fastest-growing mobile phone market over the past five years, growing 5,000 per cent between 1998 and 2003.

The report studied the impact of mobile phones in Africa and found that countries with greater mobile use have a higher rate of economic growth, Xinhua said.
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Kyocera to pull out of digital cameras
Tokyo: Electronics parts maker Kyocera is pulling out of the digital cameras market in which prices have tumbled due to intense competition.

Kyocera, with less than 3 per cent market share in Japan, now plans to focus on expanding its camera modules business for mobile phones.

Last month, Kyocera booked a fall in third-quarter net profit and slashed its outlook for the year to March by 31 per cent to 59 billion yen ($567.4 million).

Its digital camera division is expected to report sales of about 35.5 billion yen.
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