German airline Lufthansa is to lay off 2,000-4,000 employees in

German airline Lufthansa is to lay off 2,000-4,000 employees in response to an industry-wide crisis sparked by the September 11 terror attacks, sources close to the company said on Tuesday. A spokesman for Lufthansa, Thomas Jachnow, confirmed that the carrier was initiating measures immediately to shed workers but refused to say exactly how many would be affected. -- AFP

Publicly listed retailer PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa said Wednesday that higher sales boosted its nine-month net profit 11 percent to Rp 193.30 billion. Sales during the period increased 17 percent on year to Rp1.622 trillion. -- Dow Jones

Anglo-Dutch consumer products group Unilever said Tuesday it had agreed to sell its industrial cleaning business, DiverseyLever, to Johnson Wax in a deal worth about 1.6 billion dollars. Johnson Wax Professional would pay 1.0 billion dollars cash and provide a loan note of 279 million dollars. -- AFP

Obayashi Corp, one of Japan's big four general contractors, said on Wednesday it expected to show a group net loss of 67 billion yen ($546.5 million) in the current business year, compared with compared with a 6.47 billion yen net loss in the previous year. -- Reuters

The European Commission (EC) was Wednesday expected to impose record fines totaling 850 million euros on Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche, German chemical group BASF and several other companies for a nine-year conspiracy to control the vitamins market, The Financial Times reported. -- AFP

The initial public offering (IPO) of Thailand's state oil and gas company, PTT Plc raised US$631 million, from the sale of 800 million new shares at 35 baht each to foreign and domestic investors, which will be used to finance a new gas pipeline and to pay off debt. The sale reduces the Thai government's stake in PTT, formerly the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, to just under 70 percent. -- Reuters

LTV Corporation, the fourth-largest steelmaker in the United States that has been in court-ordered reorganization for more than a year, has asked a US bankruptcy court for permission to liquidate its assets. "LTV no longer has sufficient liquidity or sources of other capital to operate the integrated steel facilities," the company said Tuesday in a statement. -- AFP