Citibank and PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya, a water company in Jakarta,

Citibank and PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya, a water company in Jakarta, have signed an agreement on water bill payments, according to a Citibank statement. Under the deal, Citibank's credit cardholders are able to pay their water bills through the Citibank I Bill facility. -- JP

Ailing Hynix Semiconductor Inc. has struck a final deal to sell its key liquid crystal display (LCD) unit to a Sino-Korean consortium for US$59 million, Hynix said Saturday. "It was signed in Seoul late Friday," a Hynix official told AFP.-- AFP

Japanese banking giant Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. will cut 4,000 jobs, or 17 percent of its group workforce, to cope with flagging profitability, a report said Saturday. The bank, which currently employs some 23,000, will reduce its workforce to 19,000 by March 2005, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said. --AFP The Belgian government and Sabena, the bankrupt national airline, have launched proceedings in Belgian courts to sue Swissair for 1.94 billion euros ( US$1.7 billion), said Public Works Minister Rik Daems Friday. "The SAirGroup (the holding company of Swissair) and SAirLines have committed a number of contractual and non-contractual errors," he said in a written statement. --AFP

Swissair has cut its pilots' pay by 25 percent and other flight crew will see their pay checks reduced by 9.4 percent with immediate effect, a company spokesman said Friday. The cuts, part of an economy drive agreed under the state-backed 3.8 billion Swiss franc (2.6 billion euros) rescue plan for the Swiss aviation industry last month, received the approval of staff unions during the week, Swissair spokesman Jean-Claude Donzel told the Swiss news agency ATS.--AFP

Talks between computer chip makers Infineon of Germany and Toshiba of Japan to create a joint enterprise for the production of DRAM memory chips have made headway, the chairman of Infineon said here Friday. Negotiations have made "satisfactory progress," Ulrich Schumacher told reporters.--AFP

Securities giant Merrill Lynch has fired nearly all the employees working for its Singapore fund management arm, it was reported Saturday. Sources told The Straits Times that only one senior manager and three junior staff are left at the offices of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, which had an original staff of about 30.--DPA