WTO talks face make-or-break test in mid-July

(Reuters) - Global trade talks will face a make-or-break test this month when mediators suggest the outlines of a possible deal in two key areas of the nearly six-year-old negotiations.

Reaction to the draft texts, which diplomats said on Thursday would be circulated mid-month in Geneva, will determine whether the WTO's 150 member states can overcome deep divisions and clinch a global accord.


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ICI asks for offer ultimatum on Akzo Nobel - FT

(Reuters) - Source familiar with the matter have told Reuters that Akzo
Nobel is considering a higher bid for ICI but is prepared to
delay a move as the disclosure of its 600 pence per share offer
for ICI may flush out a rival bid.




Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Mondi to buy Austrian, Turkish packaging firms

(Reuters) - Paper producer Mondi Plc/Ltd said on Friday it had agreed to buy Austria's Unterland Flexible Packaging (UFP) and a majority interest in Turkish corrugated packaging firm Tire Kutsan.

Mondi, spun off from mining group Anglo American earlier this week, said it had agreed to buy UFP from German financial investor CMP and members of its management team for 74 million euros, including debt.


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Korean Won Drops for Third Day as Government Reiterates Concern at Rally

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea's won rose, reversing
earlier losses, on speculation increasing exports will help
boost growth in Asia's third-largest economy.

The won is set for a fourth weekly gain as equity purchases
by overseas investors helped send the benchmark stock index to a
series of records. The currency opened the day lower on concern
the central bank would sell it after officials this week
stressed they would take action to curb its advance.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

Fast Retailing eyes Barneys to tap global markets

(Reuters) - The acquisition would be Fast Retailing's biggest to date and
put to use a war chest of $1.3 billion that has been on hold
since the company gave up on a bid for Hong Kong's Giordano
International last year.




"Fast Retailing has vowed to expand abroad and they have
plenty of cash to do it," said Dairo Murata, an industry analyst
from Credit Suisse in Tokyo. "Even if this one falls through,
they will just go on looking for something else."


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UBS replaces CEO Wuffli with deputy Rohner

(Reuters) - The sudden change, effective immediately, followed growing calls from UBS critics to bolster results, and perhaps break up the company by getting out of investment banking and focusing entirely on wealth and investment management.




Wuffli, 49, had become president of UBS's group executive board in 2001, and took over as CEO in 2003. Rohner, 42, joined the board in 2002, and became Wuffli's deputy in January 2006. Both are Swiss citizens.


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China's Shares Are Headed for a `Prolonged' Slump, HSBC Strategist Says

(Bloomberg) -- China's stocks, the Asia-Pacific
region's worst performers of the past month, are in for a
``prolonged consolidation period'' as the government reins in
lending and earnings growth cools, according to Steven Sun, an
equity strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc.

His comments were made in a research note dated yesterday,
when HSBC's asset management unit held a press briefing to
introduce a fund that will invest in Chinese companies' shares
listed on the mainland as well as Hong Kong. Richard Wong, who
oversees $7 billion as head of Chinese equities at the unit,
plans to raise as much as $460 million for the fund and predicts
economic expansion will fuel a rebound in the nation's shares.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News