INTERNATIONAL
LaSalle
acquisition costs 4,000 jobs at Bank of America
Mumbai: Bank of America Corp, the second-largest
US bank, will lay off about 2,500 workers in Illinois
and 1,500 in Michigan over the next two years in connection
with its $21 billion purchase of LaSalle Bank Corp
from Dutch bank ABN Amro Holding NV.
Bank
of America said the cuts are intended to it save about $800 million by 2009. Post
cuts, the bank will employ about 8,000 people in Illinois and 2,500 in Michigan.
As of end-June
the bank had 195,675 employees.
Charlotte,
North Carolina-based Bank of America won approval from the US Federal Reserve
to buy LaSalle On September 14. The transaction is expected to close in early
October.
LaSalle
has about $160 billion of assets, 411 branches, 1,500 automated teller machines
and 1.4 million customers. LaSalle would add about $1.7 trillion of assets to
Bank of America.
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Toshiba,
Canon, 40 other Japanese firms in biochips pact
Mumbai: Toshiba Corp, Canon Inc and 30 to 40 other
Japanese firms will team up to develop biochips, seeking
new revenues in a market currently dominated by US
firms.
The
companies, including synthetic fiber maker Toray Industries Inc and electronics
firm Yokogawa Electric Corp, will together standardize microchips that respond
to genetic material, said medical consulting firm MediBic spokesman Takashi Kawai.
The
firms will work together to standardise biochips for medical diagnoses and food
safety checks, eyeing a market they expect to grow to 100 billion yen in 2010
in Japan, he said.
Demand
for biochip in Japan comes mostly from research institutions, where US firms Affymetrix
Inc and Agilent Technologies Inc are the dominant suppliers. The two hold patents
for pinpointing DNA or RNA on membranes.
The
group, with administrative support from government-affiliated Kazusa DNA Research
Institute, will form a consortium on October 19, and will call on some 100 companies.
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Air
France-KLM prepares bid for Spain's Iberia
Mumbai: French-Dutch airline Air France KLM will
team up with two Spanish firms to bid for Spain's
Iberia against a group led by private equity group
TPG, newspaper reports said.
The
Air France KLM offer would keep 51 per cent of Iberia in Spanish hands, allowing
the airline to keep flying certain routes in Spain and abroad, the report said.
TPG,
in a consortium with British Airways and Spanish firms Ibersuizas, Vista Capital
and Quercus Equity, has been talking to Iberia management for months and has made
an indicative offer of 3.60 euros a share.
Air
France KLM plans to bring on board two Spanish family investment vehicles - Torreal,
which belongs to Juan Abello, and Planeta, owned by the Lara family, the lead
shareholder in Barcelona-based airline Vueling.
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China
to spend $503 million on freeway to Central Asia
Mumbai: China is constructing a four-lane freeway
from Korla to Kuqa, in northwest China's Xinjiang
Uygur autonomous region, as part of the central Asia
highway network.
The
freeway, a section of China's No. 314 National Trunk Road, and covering a distance
of 296.5 km, is estimated to cost 4.02 billion yuan ($503 million).
China's
central government will pay 1.5 billion yuan ($187 million), while the Asian Development
Bank will lend $150 million. The local government will meet the rest of the cost.
Construction
would take three years to complete and the road would be open by 2010, Xinhua
news agency reported.
The
freeway is expected to promote economic growth and trade between China, and Central
and Western Asian nations and even Europe.
ADB listed the Korla-Kuqa freeway as a key investment project to promote comprehensive
economic growth in Central Asia during 2006-2008.
The
project was approved by China's the National Development and Reform Commission,
an official from Xinjing Uygur Autonomous Regional Bureau of Communications said.
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