Chinese firm buy stake in Daewoo

Chinese firm buy stake in Daewoo

SEOUL : South Korea's bankrupt Daewoo Motor Co. said Sunday
that Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. would acquire a 10
percent stake in a new Daewoo company to be set up by U.S. giant
General Motors Corp (GM).

The leading Chinese firm will buy the stake for US$59.7
million, Daewoo said.

The acquisition means Shanghai Automotive will be the first
Chinese carmaker to invest in a foreign firm. It holds 50 percent
in the Chinese market and runs three joint ventures with General
Motors.

General Motors will own 42.1 percent of the new entity, called
GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Co., Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp.
will hold 14.9 percent by, Shanghai Automotive 10 percent while
creditors have 33 percent.

General Motors agreed in April to take over Daewoo's two
passenger car factories in South Korea and overseas units
including a plant in Vietnam. Daewoo was declared bankrupt two
years ago.

South Korean creditors have promised to convert 13.15 trillion
won ($10.7 billion) of Daewoo's debt into equity to clear bad
assets. --AFP.

Strikes cripple Fiat plants

MILAN : Strikes crippled Fiat plants across Italy Friday in
protest of a rescue plan by the country's largest private sector
employer that includes massive layoffs and plant closures.

Thousands of Fiat workers, angered by the restructuring plan
announced Wednesday, failed to show up for work at the factories
of Fiat Auto and at other units, such as metalworking and machine
tooling plants.

Flagship automaking division Fiat Auto, which is an industrial
icon but a major drain on the group's resources, is bearing the
brunt of the job reductions.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, which is
owned by the group, Fiat Auto chief executive Boschetti said "the
plan will stay the way it is."

Fiat announced on Wednesday 8,100 job reductions through
temporary layoffs and early retirement. Fiat wants the 7,600
layoffs to be financed by a special long-term unemployment fund
to which the government would contribute. -- AFP
Lucent to cut 10,000 jobs

NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES : U.S. telecom equipment group Lucent
Technologies announced Friday it would cut 10,000 jobs, or 22
percent of its workforce, by 2003.

The firm -- which had about 45,000 employees at the end of the
2002 fiscal year in late September -- said it planned to trim its
workforce to 35,000 by the end of fiscal 2003.

Lucent said as early as September 13 that it would cut jobs
but did not reveal the size or scope of its restructuring plan.

The company said it would also announce fourth-quarter losses
that were "significantly larger" than the previously announced US
45 cents per share. That figure was about three times greater
than what Wall Street analysts had forecast.

The one-time star of the telecommunications industry has been
among the hardest hit by the brutal slump in the sector, amid a
spate of canceled orders and failed dot-coms unable to pay their
debts. -- Dow Jones

EU to approve De Beers strategy

BRUSSELS : The European Commission is close to approving a new
diamond sales program by South African mining giant De Beers that
could reshape the multibillion-dollar luxury market, a source in
Brussels said Friday.

The office of European antitrust regulator Mario Monti "should
not find much fault with" the project given concessions made by
De Beers to its so-called supplier-of-choice strategy, the source
said.

"The decision should not take long now," it added, indirectly
confirming an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal.

De Beers unveiled last year its new strategy, which seeks to
increase its control of the retail market through a codified
relationship with established diamond distributors, known as
"sightholders," the Journal said.

The Commission's antitrust regulators became concerned that De
Beers could use the new strategy to restrict distribution of
rough diamonds to a select few middlemen and thus limit
competition, potentially raising retail prices. --AFP

ZDF forced to make economic cuts

MAINZ, GERMANY : Germany's second public television channel
ZDF, hit hard like other German media by falling advertising
budgets, announced an economy package Friday aimed at saving 50
million euros a year.

ZDF said after a board meeting that without making the
economies, it risked running up a deficit of some 200 million
euros by the end of 2004.

ZDF chief Markus Schaechter said it should not lead to forced
redundancies or sackings. The channel will also look at its
programming, making more room for news.

ZDF is Germany's third most popular channel after its public
rival ARD and the commercial station RTL.

Falling income from advertisers and rising costs of newsprint
have already forced a number of prestigious German media
concerns, including the Springer group which publishes the daily
Bild and Die Welt newspapers, either to raise their cover prices
or to cut jobs, or sometimes both. -- AFP