Egyptian cabinet approves $3.2 billion economic stimulus plan

CAIRO | Wed Aug 28, 2013 3:59pm BST

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's cabinet approved on Wednesday an additional 22.3 billion Egyptian pounds ($3.19 billion) in investment projects to boost the economy over the coming 10 months, Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa el-Din said.

Despite the new spending, the government aims to reduce the budget deficit to 9 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year to end-June 2014 from 14 percent last year, Finance Minister Ahmed Galal said.

This it would do by streamlining spending, especially on energy subsidies, Galal said.

The two ministers were speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting.

(Reporting by Patrick Werr; Editing by John Stonestreet)

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Amgen seeks to bolster drug pipeline with $10.4 billion Onyx buy

By Soyoung Kim and Michael Erman

Mon Aug 26, 2013 10:13am BST

n">(Reuters) - Amgen Inc struck a deal to buy cancer drug maker Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc for about $10.4 billion on Sunday, as it moves to restock its product pipeline in response to declining sales of its flagship anaemia drugs.

The acquisition - which ends a two-month-long auction of Onyx - represents the fifth-largest biotechnology deal in history. It gives Amgen full rights to Kyprolis, the new multiple myeloma drug that analysts expect to reach annual peak sales in excess of $2 billion.

The world's largest biotechnology company will also gain a revenue stream from the liver and kidney cancer drug Nexavar that Onyx shares with Bayer AG, as well as royalty payments on Bayer's much newer colon cancer drug, Stivarga, and potential future royalties on an experimental breast cancer drug being developed by Pfizer Inc.

Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen has faced growing pressure to beef up its drug development pipeline as safety concerns have trimmed sales of its flagship anaemia drugs, Aranesp and Epogen. Also, patents on four of its five top-selling drugs are set to expire starting in 2015.

Cancer medicines are the holy grail for many drug makers because current products have limited effectiveness and the companies can charge steep prices for new biotech treatments.

Amgen said it will pay $125 per share for Onyx, a 4.2 percent increase from the $120 a share it offered in June. Onyx said that bid significantly undervalued the company and put itself up for sale.

The companies expect the deal to close in the beginning of the fourth quarter. Amgen expects it to add to adjusted net income in 2015.

Discussions between Amgen and Onyx hit a snag earlier this month after Amgen sought access to data from Onyx's ongoing clinical trials, people familiar with the matter told Reuters previously. A source familiar with the matter on Sunday said that Amgen believed it had done extensive due diligence and was comfortable with the purchase.

Onyx shares closed at $116.96 on Friday. They closed at $85.50 on June 28, before reports of Amgen's $120-a-share bid surfaced.

BIGGEST DEAL SINCE 2001

The Onyx deal is Amgen's biggest since its $16 billion acquisition of Immunex in 2001 which gave it the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel, now one of Amgen's biggest-selling products.

It is also by far the biggest deal under CEO Bob Bradway, who assumed the top spot in May 2012. He has done a handful of much smaller deals, the biggest to date being a $1.16 billion acquisition of Micromet.

Large pharmaceutical companies have increasingly been looking to acquire smaller biotech firms to gain access to new drugs, as they face significant revenue losses stemming from expired patents.

This helped drive up the volume of healthcare M&A in the first six months of 2013 more than 30 percent compared with the same period last year.

Recent deals include generic drugmaker Actavis Inc's $8.5 billion acquisition of Warner Chilcott and Human Genome Sciences' $3 billion sale to GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

The Onyx deal is expected to give Amgen a much higher profile in oncology. Several of its current drugs offer supportive care for cancer patients, such as treating anaemia or decreases in white blood cells caused by chemotherapy.

Another of Amgen's newer medicines, Xgeva, helps prevent fractures in patients whose cancer has spread to the bone. It's one product that treats cancer, the colon cancer drug Vectibix, has been largely a disappointment.

Analysts expected Onyx revenue to reach $878 million in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with ISI Group LLC, projected that an Onyx acquisition would increase Amgen non-GAAP earnings by 5 percent in 2015, and boost them as much as 15 to 20 percent in 2018.

Lazard was the lead financial adviser to Amgen, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as co-adviser and lead arranger for the company's financing. Centerview Partners was Onyx's financial adviser

Law firms Sullivan & Cromwell and Goodwin Procter were legal counsel to Amgen and Onyx, respectively.

(Reporting by Michael Erman and Soyoung Kim in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Stephen Coates)

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One Direction the billion dollar band: how their new film This Is Us will earn a pot of gold

By Alison Boshoff

PUBLISHED: 19:38 EST, 15 August 2013 | UPDATED: 02:13 EST, 16 August 2013

Nobody goes to Leicester Square for the peace and quiet, but unless you enjoy the sound of high-pitched screaming, you ought to give the area a pretty wide berth on Tuesday.

For that is the date when all of One Direction will gather on the red carpet for the premiere of their film This Is Us.

Given that Directioners gather in their hundreds on the rumour that their idols are in the building, and were queueing from 3.45am for a screening of the film in Los Angeles last week, an excitable crowd of up to 10,000 is expected.

The band are out to prove that they are 'Bigger than Bieber' whose film Never Say Never took ?63 million at the box office

And with a reception like that you may surmise the documentary, which cost around ?8?million, is likely to make the kind of profits that will have Sony’s accountants swooning in the aisles, too.

For, hatched at the very height of the band’s record-busting popularity, it is projected to take about ?120?million at the box office. ‘It is going to be gangbusters,’ says one Sony executive — meaning it’s going to be zealously successful.

When and if it does go ‘gangbusters’, the band will have shown they are ‘Bigger than Bieber’ — the last challenge in their domination of popular culture.

For the big landmark when it comes to these kind of films is Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. Released in 2011, the part-documentary and part-concert film took ?63?million at the box office.

In doing so, it changed the game. For even really big concert films never made much money until then — In Bed With Madonna took a modest ?9.7?million in America, for instance.

But the Bieber movie showed there was ‘real money’ to be made. Katy Perry was quick to jump on the bandwagon with Part Of Me, in 2012, which took a healthy ?20?million. (This Is It, the posthumous Michael Jackson tribute, took ?46?million, but clearly it was atypical.)

And, given that One Direction are signed to a division of Sony, which also has a movie arm, the graduation to the big screen was obvious.

The synergies are clear. The band is signed to Syco (a joint Sony-Simon Cowell venture), having found fame on The X Factor, a Syco show. They star in a film made by Syco’s parent company Sony and will no doubt plug their next Syco album on this year’s X Factor.

Paul Williams, head of business analysis at Music Week magazine, told me: ‘From the Fifties and Sixties onwards, it has been the case that when you get globally successful to a huge degree, you then get a film career of some kind.

‘Colonel Tom Parker put Elvis into movies, and The Beatles made A Hard Day’s Night within a few weeks of cracking America. There’s been nothing to touch that recently, but the Spice Girls did make a film as Simon Fuller saw the opportunity to make even more money.

‘One Direction are the most popular British pop band since the Spice Girls. They broke America with ease. Their popularity across the world is so immense that it is hard to see any reason why the film will not be a huge success.’

Hatched at the very height of the band?s record-busting popularity, the film is projected to take about ?120 million at the box office

As a self-sanctioned product, the film will of course be a flattering and warm portrayal of One Direction

Business Insider magazine prophesied they are on course to draw in $1?billion in revenue by the end of 2013. This is probably an underestimate, as the magazine did not add  in the band’s yet-to-be-announced third album.

However, music insiders believe it will be released in time for the crucial Christmas market, and is likely to propel them far past the $1?billion mark.

All good news for Simon Cowell to ponder, then. And the boys, who recent estimates suggest have each netted ?5.5?million so far. Not bad for a group of 19 to 21-year-olds.

So what is in the movie? As a self-sanctioned product, it will of course be a flattering and warm portrayal of One Direction. There won’t be any conflict on screen.

Fans will be glad to hear not a nanosecond is devoted to Harry Styles’ former girlfriend Taylor Swift. They split up just before the cameras started rolling in January.

The director of This Is Us, which is in 3D, is Morgan Spurlock, best known for the documentary Super Size Me, about the effects of eating only huge McDonald’s meals.

Spurlock seems to have been chosen to bring a certain credible, leftfield sensibility to the film, and to help to position the band less as a Monkees-style manufactured act and more as ‘real’ young men to whom the fans can relate. There is plenty about their families, the lives they lead, the jobs held by the boys before they became famous, and so on.

Trailers show the families of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik talking about them, and interviews with others such as Simon Cowell. The band have been filmed on tour in Japan, at home and making nostalgic trips. Harry is seen at the bakery in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, where he used to have a Saturday job. The 19-year-old said he hoped the film would show fans a new side to them.

‘On Twitter, you only have 140 characters, and you can’t get personality across in ten-minute interviews,’ he says. ‘But the film is going to be a lot more of how we interact and how we’re chilled out in the dressing room. It will be nice to see us as we are.’

Niall,  who is the most popular of all of them in America, agreed: ‘It’s good in the movie because people can see what we’re like behind the scenes. It’s going to be access all areas. They’ve even been filming us in the toilet.’

Justin Bieber's movie movie showed there was real money to be made. Until then, even big budget concert films hadn't had great success

Katy Perry's This Is It featured snippets from her personal life with Russell brand. One Direction fans will be pleased at the prospect of seeing a snippet of Harry styles' short-lived relationship with Taylor Swift

Louis insisted everything is genuine. He says: ‘Nothing at all was scripted. If we are asked the question, we just answer naturally.’

Producer Ben Winston explains: ‘The doc of what’s happened to them over the past few years is more exciting than any script writer could come up with.

‘You’ve already got a wonderful story to tell.’

The true story is of five young men who applied as solo candidates to The X Factor in 2010 but failed to make the grade in the boys’ category.

Judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested putting them together as a group, under the aegis of Simon Cowell. They finished third behind Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle.

But, thanks to astute management by Cowell, who hired hitmaker Savan Kotecha to write for them, they became a global phenomenon.

If you aren’t a fan, of course, the movie will probably be best avoided — for all the guff about how real it is, the film will be chiefly a promotional vehicle.

However, One Direction seem unstoppably popular. They are  in the middle of the North American leg of a massive sold-out world tour. In America, the tour is heavily sponsored by Nabisco, who are plugging brands such as Oreo and Ritz.

And, as anyone who sat through the Teen Choice Awards this week will attest, 1D fever swept the board with them winning Choice Summer Tour, Choice Group, Choice Single (Live While We’re Young) and Choice Love Song (Little Things). Harry Styles won two individual awards for being Choice Hottie and Choice Smile.

There won’t be an Oscar, a Golden Globe or even a Bafta for This Is Us.

But a pot of gold? That seems pretty much a sure thing.

n?This Is Us is released in cinemas on August 29.

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Argentina loses U.S. appeal in $1.33 billion bondholder fight

By Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK | Fri Aug 23, 2013 5:57pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina on Friday lost its appeal of a U.S. court order requiring it to pay $1.33 billion to hedge funds that refused to accept steep discounts when the nation restructured its debt.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York is the latest in a standoff between U.S. courts and the Argentine government that some investors fear could lead Argentina to default. The court stayed the decision pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court, giving Argentina a reprieve and nervous investors some relief.

While Argentina and its supporters have said a ruling against it could threaten future sovereign debt restructurings, the court said the case was an "exceptional one" that would have little impact on future transactions.

The court also had harsh words for the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, which has called the hedge funds vultures and vowed not to pay them.

"Argentina's officials have publicly and repeatedly announced their intention to defy any rulings of this Court and the district court with which they disagree," Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote for a three-judge appeals panel.

Argentina did not comment on the decision on Friday. Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino, asked about the decision during a trip to Chile, declined to comment.

The case stems from Argentina's $100 billion default on its debt in 2001. In two subsequent restructurings, in 2005 and 2010, creditors holding about 93 percent of the debt received 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.

Dissident bondholders led by the hedge funds NML Capital Ltd, which is a unit of Paul Singer's Elliott Management Corp, and Aurelius Capital Management refused to go along with the restructurings, arguing in court that they should be paid in full.

The case came to a head in November 2012, when U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in New York ordered Argentina to pay $1.33 billion into a court-controlled escrow account for the dissident bondholders.

He also ordered Argentina not to pay its other bondholders without making the payment, raising the prospect that Argentina could go into default.

The U.S. Supreme Court starts its new term in October and, if it agrees to take the case, may not rule until the next June.

Initially, investors in Argentine assets breathed a sigh of relief, but by the end of the day the Merval index .MERV of Argentine blue chips had closed lower.

For the longer term, investors signaled continued worries.

The cost to protect $10 million of Argentine sovereign debt against default for five years rose to $2.53 million annually from $2.28 million on Thursday, according to Markit. The cost suggests that many investors consider it likely the debt will go into default.

"The court's decision against Argentina is what we have been expecting," said Stuart Culverhouse, head of research at Exotix in London. "Market disappointment may be tempered though by the continuation of the stay with the Supreme Court appeal."

In the decision, Parker wrote that the court believed "it is equitable for one creditor to receive what it bargained for, and is therefore entitled to, even if other creditors, when receiving what they bargained for, do not receive the same thing.

"Because the district court's decision does no more than hold Argentina to its contractual obligation of equal treatment, we see no abuse of discretion," Parker added.

'NOT ABOUT THE LAW'

Friday's ruling rejected Argentina's arguments that the order to pay the holdout bondholders would unjustly hurt itself, participants in the bond payment system and the public.

It also rejected a claim by bondholders who agreed to the restructuring that Griesa's ruling would prevent them from being paid, based on Argentina's refusal to pay the holdouts.

"This type of harm - harm threatened to third parties by a party subject to an injunction who avows not to obey it - does not make an otherwise lawful injunction 'inequitable,'" Parker wrote.

Sean O'Shea, a lawyer for a group of bondholders including Gramercy Funds Management LLC who participated in the debt restructuring, said the opinion "unfortunately glosses over" the impact on his clients.

But Theodore Olson, a lawyer for NML, one of the dissident hedge funds, said the ruling "confirms that Argentina is not above the law."

At times, Friday's ruling reflected seeming frustration of the court with Argentina.

Parker said that in light of the "unusual nature of this litigation," the court had invited Argentina to propose an alternative payment formula that it was willing to commit. Argentina put forward "no productive proposals," he wrote.

The opinion quoted Jonathan Blackman, Argentina's lawyer, as even telling the court during arguments that the country "would not voluntarily obey" Griesa's injunctions if they were upheld.

NEXT STOP: SUPREME COURT

Argentina has already sought Supreme Court review of a ruling by the 2nd Circuit in October last year that Argentina had broken a contractual obligation to treat bondholders equally. A footnote to Friday's ruling suggested that the Supreme Court justices may wait instead for an appeal from the more recent decision.

That would delay the high court taking action on the appeal, although it could still potentially decide the case by the end of the court's next term, which starts in October and runs until June 2014.

Resolution of the case could be delayed further if the justices ask the Obama administration to weigh on whether they should hear the case. Then, the court might not rule on the case, if it decides to hear it, until the term that starts in October 2014.

In Friday's ruling, the 2nd Circuit also said that New York's status as a financial center depended on enforcing the ruling.

"We believe that the interest - one widely shared in the financial community - in maintaining New York's status as one of the foremost commercial centers is advanced by requiring debtors, including foreign debtors, to pay their debts," Parker wrote.

The case is NML Capital Ltd et al v. Republic of Argentina, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-105.

(Additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein in Buenos Aires and Lawrence Hurley in Washington; Editing by Eddie Evans, Dan Grebler and Bernard Orr)

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Argentina loses U.S. appeal in $1.33 billion bondholder fight

By Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK | Fri Aug 23, 2013 5:57pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina on Friday lost its appeal of a U.S. court order requiring it to pay $1.33 billion to hedge funds that refused to accept steep discounts when the nation restructured its debt.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York is the latest in a standoff between U.S. courts and the Argentine government that some investors fear could lead Argentina to default. The court stayed the decision pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court, giving Argentina a reprieve and nervous investors some relief.

While Argentina and its supporters have said a ruling against it could threaten future sovereign debt restructurings, the court said the case was an "exceptional one" that would have little impact on future transactions.

The court also had harsh words for the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, which has called the hedge funds vultures and vowed not to pay them.

"Argentina's officials have publicly and repeatedly announced their intention to defy any rulings of this Court and the district court with which they disagree," Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote for a three-judge appeals panel.

Argentina did not comment on the decision on Friday. Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino, asked about the decision during a trip to Chile, declined to comment.

The case stems from Argentina's $100 billion default on its debt in 2001. In two subsequent restructurings, in 2005 and 2010, creditors holding about 93 percent of the debt received 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.

Dissident bondholders led by the hedge funds NML Capital Ltd, which is a unit of Paul Singer's Elliott Management Corp, and Aurelius Capital Management refused to go along with the restructurings, arguing in court that they should be paid in full.

The case came to a head in November 2012, when U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in New York ordered Argentina to pay $1.33 billion into a court-controlled escrow account for the dissident bondholders.

He also ordered Argentina not to pay its other bondholders without making the payment, raising the prospect that Argentina could go into default.

The U.S. Supreme Court starts its new term in October and, if it agrees to take the case, may not rule until the next June.

Initially, investors in Argentine assets breathed a sigh of relief, but by the end of the day the Merval index .MERV of Argentine blue chips had closed lower.

For the longer term, investors signaled continued worries.

The cost to protect $10 million of Argentine sovereign debt against default for five years rose to $2.53 million annually from $2.28 million on Thursday, according to Markit. The cost suggests that many investors consider it likely the debt will go into default.

"The court's decision against Argentina is what we have been expecting," said Stuart Culverhouse, head of research at Exotix in London. "Market disappointment may be tempered though by the continuation of the stay with the Supreme Court appeal."

In the decision, Parker wrote that the court believed "it is equitable for one creditor to receive what it bargained for, and is therefore entitled to, even if other creditors, when receiving what they bargained for, do not receive the same thing.

"Because the district court's decision does no more than hold Argentina to its contractual obligation of equal treatment, we see no abuse of discretion," Parker added.

'NOT ABOUT THE LAW'

Friday's ruling rejected Argentina's arguments that the order to pay the holdout bondholders would unjustly hurt itself, participants in the bond payment system and the public.

It also rejected a claim by bondholders who agreed to the restructuring that Griesa's ruling would prevent them from being paid, based on Argentina's refusal to pay the holdouts.

"This type of harm - harm threatened to third parties by a party subject to an injunction who avows not to obey it - does not make an otherwise lawful injunction 'inequitable,'" Parker wrote.

Sean O'Shea, a lawyer for a group of bondholders including Gramercy Funds Management LLC who participated in the debt restructuring, said the opinion "unfortunately glosses over" the impact on his clients.

But Theodore Olson, a lawyer for NML, one of the dissident hedge funds, said the ruling "confirms that Argentina is not above the law."

At times, Friday's ruling reflected seeming frustration of the court with Argentina.

Parker said that in light of the "unusual nature of this litigation," the court had invited Argentina to propose an alternative payment formula that it was willing to commit. Argentina put forward "no productive proposals," he wrote.

The opinion quoted Jonathan Blackman, Argentina's lawyer, as even telling the court during arguments that the country "would not voluntarily obey" Griesa's injunctions if they were upheld.

NEXT STOP: SUPREME COURT

Argentina has already sought Supreme Court review of a ruling by the 2nd Circuit in October last year that Argentina had broken a contractual obligation to treat bondholders equally. A footnote to Friday's ruling suggested that the Supreme Court justices may wait instead for an appeal from the more recent decision.

That would delay the high court taking action on the appeal, although it could still potentially decide the case by the end of the court's next term, which starts in October and runs until June 2014.

Resolution of the case could be delayed further if the justices ask the Obama administration to weigh on whether they should hear the case. Then, the court might not rule on the case, if it decides to hear it, until the term that starts in October 2014.

In Friday's ruling, the 2nd Circuit also said that New York's status as a financial center depended on enforcing the ruling.

"We believe that the interest - one widely shared in the financial community - in maintaining New York's status as one of the foremost commercial centers is advanced by requiring debtors, including foreign debtors, to pay their debts," Parker wrote.

The case is NML Capital Ltd et al v. Republic of Argentina, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-105.

(Additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein in Buenos Aires and Lawrence Hurley in Washington; Editing by Eddie Evans, Dan Grebler and Bernard Orr)

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Argentina loses U.S. appeal in $1.33 billion bondholder fight

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK | Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:35am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina on Friday lost its appeal of a U.S. judge's order requiring that it pay $1.33 billion to bondholders who refused to participate in two debt restructurings after the country's $100 billion default more than a decade ago.

But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York delayed implementing the decision pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The appeals court's decision marked a major victory for the so-called "holdout" bondholders, led by NML Capital Ltd, a unit of billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer's Elliott Management Corp, and Aurelius Capital Management.

U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker, writing for the three-judge panel, said the court believed "it is equitable for one creditor to receive what it bargained for, and is therefore entitled to, even if other creditors, when receiving what they bargained for, do not receive the same thing."

"Because the district court's decision does no more than hold Argentina to its contractual obligation of equal treatment, we see no abuse of discretion," he added.

The appellate ruling upheld a November 2012 decision that required Argentina to pay the money into a court-controlled escrow account by the time of its next interest payment to the bondholders who agreed to swap their debt in 2005 and 2010.

Dissident bondholders have long argued that Buenos Aires continues to defy U.S. law by not paying them in full. Argentina has said that if it is forced to pay the dissidents, then future sovereign restructurings would be impossible to hammer out.

Argentina has called holdouts like NML and Aurelius "vultures." About 93 percent of the country's bonds were restructured, with creditors receiving 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.

In October 2012, the 2nd Circuit said Argentina violated an equal treatment clause in the contracts governing its bonds.

In November, U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa ordered Argentina to pay $1.33 billion owed to the holdout bondholders into an escrow account before making its next interest payment to creditors who participated in the restructurings.

The case is NML Capital Ltd et al v. Republic of Argentina, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-105.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and W Simon)

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China vets brokerages' computer systems after $3.8 billion buy error

A department office of Everbright Securities is pictured in Beijing, August 16, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

By Matthew Miller and Gabriel Wildau

BEIJING/SHANGHAI | Thu Aug 22, 2013 3:51am EDT

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's more than 110 brokerages will come under government scrutiny after Everbright Securities mistakenly made 23.4 billion yuan ($3.82 billion) of buy orders, collectively the biggest erroneous trade in Chinese stock market history.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) decided to widen its investigation of stock trading systems to all brokerages following its probe into a small Shanghai-based company that made the high-frequency trading software used by Everbright, a CSRC spokesman said.

The CSRC is trying to determine whether design flaws in the trading platform made by Shanghai Mercrtsoft Technology Co were responsible for Everbright's trading glitch on August 16. The malfunction caused the brokerage to place a series of mistaken trades that totaled 23.4 billion yuan ($3.82 billion), spurring a massive swing in Shanghai stock prices. Everbright has since replaced its president.

Everbright's trading error exposed shortcomings in China's trading systems and their oversight, industry experts say. It has prompted local securities firms to review their existing practices and may result in greater regulatory supervision.

"The 'Mercrtsoft High-Frequency Trading and Investment System' that Everbright used was a customized system currently used exclusively by Everbright," the CSRC spokesman said in a question-and-answer transcript posted to the regulator's website late on Wednesday.

But he said the CSRC is also conducting inspections of systems in use at other brokerages.

Shanghai-based Everbright said a problem with its order execution system sent 26,082 erroneous buy orders directly to the Shanghai Stock Exchange last Friday morning over a two-minute period.

That sparked a flash rally that created and then wiped out roughly $100 billion worth of share value on the CSI300 Index in the course of a single day, Reuters calculations show. The CSI300 tracks the largest listed firms in China.

The incident has also thrown the spotlight on declining spending on information technology systems by China's brokerages.

In recent years, securities companies have developed increasingly sophisticated proprietary trading strategies, allowing them to speculate with their own money in a widening variety of ways, as regulators have introduced more sophisticated instruments such as stock index futures.

But IT investment by brokerages hasn't kept pace.

Between 2010 and 2012, brokerage IT spending dropped 13.4 percent to 5.6 billion yuan, according to statistics compiled by CCW Research, a Beijing-based IT consultancy.

"When it comes to new financial products and business lines, the finance industry people understand the risks, but they're not familiar with how to use technology to mitigate those risks. They don't understand IT," said Guo Chang, deputy general manager at CCW Research.

Guo said brokerages have reduced IT expenditures due to the industry's weak profitability in recent years, but the Everbright incident should ensure that such spending does not decline any further.

Brokerages such as GF Securities, CITIC Securities and China Merchants Securities could not immediately comment.

MERCRTSOFT SOFTWARE

Mercrtsoft makes trading software for many of China's hedge funds, trust companies and domestic securities brokerages.

Its software is used by 17 brokerages and four futures companies, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The high-frequency trading software designed especially for Everbright was commissioned in February, Xinhua said.

A notice on Mercrtsoft's website said the company is "actively cooperating" with regulators and that employees continue to come to work as usual. The firm has closed the rest of its website.

At Everbright, the brokerage is replacing its current president Xu Haoming by a temporary president Yuan Changqing.

It has also suspended Yang Jianbo, head of proprietary trading, and replaced him with Li Haisong, head of the brokerage's risk management department.

Everbright shares have lost 17.6 percent since August 16.

On Wednesday, the brokerage was ordered to suspend lead-underwriting of any new debt financing instruments of non-financial enterprises in the country's interbank bond market, after an unrelated trading mistake - this one caused by human error - resulted in a trading loss of $32 million.

The National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII), which is appointed by the central bank to help supervise the interbank bond market, made the instruction and did not say how long it would last.

NAFMII demanded Everbright conduct a self-examination of its business processes, electronic systems, internal compliance, risk management and staff management, and submit its findings to the association together with a restructuring plan by August 30, according to an Everbright filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Such glitches are likely to become a more common fixture of the Chinese markets as they grow increasingly complex, some analysts say.

"I think you'll see more problems like this as the industry evolves," said Mike Werner, an analyst for Bernstein Research who covers China's banks.

"As the banks bring more and more computer systems on board, you have to wonder how well these systems are tested. There's now more chance for human and operational risk at the brokerages, rather than just policy risk."

($1 = 6.1234 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by Chen Yixin in SHANGHAI and Michael Flaherty in HONG KONG; Editing by Ryan Woo)

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HP could do acquisitions up to $1.5 billion: CEO

Meg Whitman, chief executive officer and president of Hewlett-Packard, speaks during the grand opening of the company's Executive Briefing Center in Palo Alto, California January 16, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Stephen Lam

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One Direction the billion dollar band: how their new film This Is Us will earn a pot of gold

By Alison Boshoff

PUBLISHED: 00:38 GMT, 16 August 2013 | UPDATED: 07:13 GMT, 16 August 2013

Nobody goes to Leicester Square for the peace and quiet, but unless you enjoy the sound of high-pitched screaming, you ought to give the area a pretty wide berth on Tuesday.

For that is the date when all of One Direction will gather on the red carpet for the premiere of their film This Is Us.

Given that Directioners gather in their hundreds on the rumour that their idols are in the building, and were queueing from 3.45am for a screening of the film in Los Angeles last week, an excitable crowd of up to 10,000 is expected.

The band are out to prove that they are 'Bigger than Bieber' whose film Never Say Never took ?63 million at the box office

And with a reception like that you may surmise the documentary, which cost around ?8?million, is likely to make the kind of profits that will have Sony’s accountants swooning in the aisles, too.

For, hatched at the very height of the band’s record-busting popularity, it is projected to take about ?120?million at the box office. ‘It is going to be gangbusters,’ says one Sony executive — meaning it’s going to be zealously successful.

When and if it does go ‘gangbusters’, the band will have shown they are ‘Bigger than Bieber’ — the last challenge in their domination of popular culture.

For the big landmark when it comes to these kind of films is Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. Released in 2011, the part-documentary and part-concert film took ?63?million at the box office.

In doing so, it changed the game. For even really big concert films never made much money until then — In Bed With Madonna took a modest ?9.7?million in America, for instance.

But the Bieber movie showed there was ‘real money’ to be made. Katy Perry was quick to jump on the bandwagon with Part Of Me, in 2012, which took a healthy ?20?million. (This Is It, the posthumous Michael Jackson tribute, took ?46?million, but clearly it was atypical.)

And, given that One Direction are signed to a division of Sony, which also has a movie arm, the graduation to the big screen was obvious.

The synergies are clear. The band is signed to Syco (a joint Sony-Simon Cowell venture), having found fame on The X Factor, a Syco show. They star in a film made by Syco’s parent company Sony and will no doubt plug their next Syco album on this year’s X Factor.

Paul Williams, head of business analysis at Music Week magazine, told me: ‘From the Fifties and Sixties onwards, it has been the case that when you get globally successful to a huge degree, you then get a film career of some kind.

‘Colonel Tom Parker put Elvis into movies, and The Beatles made A Hard Day’s Night within a few weeks of cracking America. There’s been nothing to touch that recently, but the Spice Girls did make a film as Simon Fuller saw the opportunity to make even more money.

‘One Direction are the most popular British pop band since the Spice Girls. They broke America with ease. Their popularity across the world is so immense that it is hard to see any reason why the film will not be a huge success.’

Hatched at the very height of the band?s record-busting popularity, the film is projected to take about ?120 million at the box office

As a self-sanctioned product, the film will of course be a flattering and warm portrayal of One Direction

Business Insider magazine prophesied they are on course to draw in $1?billion in revenue by the end of 2013. This is probably an underestimate, as the magazine did not add  in the band’s yet-to-be-announced third album.

However, music insiders believe it will be released in time for the crucial Christmas market, and is likely to propel them far past the $1?billion mark.

All good news for Simon Cowell to ponder, then. And the boys, who recent estimates suggest have each netted ?5.5?million so far. Not bad for a group of 19 to 21-year-olds.

So what is in the movie? As a self-sanctioned product, it will of course be a flattering and warm portrayal of One Direction. There won’t be any conflict on screen.

Fans will be glad to hear not a nanosecond is devoted to Harry Styles’ former girlfriend Taylor Swift. They split up just before the cameras started rolling in January.

The director of This Is Us, which is in 3D, is Morgan Spurlock, best known for the documentary Super Size Me, about the effects of eating only huge McDonald’s meals.

Spurlock seems to have been chosen to bring a certain credible, leftfield sensibility to the film, and to help to position the band less as a Monkees-style manufactured act and more as ‘real’ young men to whom the fans can relate. There is plenty about their families, the lives they lead, the jobs held by the boys before they became famous, and so on.

Trailers show the families of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik talking about them, and interviews with others such as Simon Cowell. The band have been filmed on tour in Japan, at home and making nostalgic trips. Harry is seen at the bakery in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, where he used to have a Saturday job. The 19-year-old said he hoped the film would show fans a new side to them.

‘On Twitter, you only have 140 characters, and you can’t get personality across in ten-minute interviews,’ he says. ‘But the film is going to be a lot more of how we interact and how we’re chilled out in the dressing room. It will be nice to see us as we are.’

Niall,  who is the most popular of all of them in America, agreed: ‘It’s good in the movie because people can see what we’re like behind the scenes. It’s going to be access all areas. They’ve even been filming us in the toilet.’

Justin Bieber's movie movie showed there was real money to be made. Until then, even big budget concert films hadn't had great success

Katy Perry's This Is It featured snippets from her personal life with Russell brand. One Direction fans will be pleased at the prospect of seeing a snippet of Harry styles' short-lived relationship with Taylor Swift

Louis insisted everything is genuine. He says: ‘Nothing at all was scripted. If we are asked the question, we just answer naturally.’

Producer Ben Winston explains: ‘The doc of what’s happened to them over the past few years is more exciting than any script writer could come up with.

‘You’ve already got a wonderful story to tell.’

The true story is of five young men who applied as solo candidates to The X Factor in 2010 but failed to make the grade in the boys’ category.

Judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested putting them together as a group, under the aegis of Simon Cowell. They finished third behind Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle.

But, thanks to astute management by Cowell, who hired hitmaker Savan Kotecha to write for them, they became a global phenomenon.

If you aren’t a fan, of course, the movie will probably be best avoided — for all the guff about how real it is, the film will be chiefly a promotional vehicle.

However, One Direction seem unstoppably popular. They are  in the middle of the North American leg of a massive sold-out world tour. In America, the tour is heavily sponsored by Nabisco, who are plugging brands such as Oreo and Ritz.

And, as anyone who sat through the Teen Choice Awards this week will attest, 1D fever swept the board with them winning Choice Summer Tour, Choice Group, Choice Single (Live While We’re Young) and Choice Love Song (Little Things). Harry Styles won two individual awards for being Choice Hottie and Choice Smile.

There won’t be an Oscar, a Golden Globe or even a Bafta for This Is Us.

But a pot of gold? That seems pretty much a sure thing.

n?This Is Us is released in cinemas on August 29.

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South Korea says at least one qualifying bid in $7.4 billion fighter deal

BF-3, a short take-off and vertical landing F-35 Lightning II, releases an inert 1,000 lb.

Credit: Reuters/Andy Wolfe/Lockheed Martin/Handout

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At least one bid qualified for $7.4 billion South Korea fighter jet deal

1 of 2. Members of the honor guard from the South Korean armed forces lead an annual military parade in Chuncheon, northeast of Seoul June 21, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Lee Jae-Won

SEOUL | Fri Aug 16, 2013 4:44am EDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Friday that at least one bid came in under budget for its 8.3 trillion Korean won ($7.42 billion) purchase of 60 next generation fighter jets, the country's biggest-ever defense import program to replace its ageing fleet.

A spokesman at the government's Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said at a briefing that a comprehensive evaluation would start and that a winner was expected to be chosen in mid-September.

DAPA resumed the bidding this week after suspending the process in July due to price gaps.

Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35, Boeing Co's F-15 and EADS's Eurofighter Typhoon are in the race.

Spokesman Baek Youn-hyeong declined to give the number or name of the companies that had submitted the required price.

"A qualified company that came under the total project budget will be selected finally," Baek said.

South Korea had originally aimed to pick a winner by October 2012, but last year's presidential election and criticism that the government had rushed matters slowed the process.

Analysts say the government is unlikely to meet the planned first delivery date of 2017.

The program seeks to partially replace some 150 ageing F-4 and F-5 jets that South Korea plans to retire starting in 2015.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Joyce Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

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South Korea says at least one qualifying bid in $7.4 billion fighter deal

BF-3, a short take-off and vertical landing F-35 Lightning II, releases an inert 1,000 lb.

Credit: Reuters/Andy Wolfe/Lockheed Martin/Handout

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Canada's Hudson's Bay to buy Saks for $2.4 billion

By Phil Wahba

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hudson's Bay Co said on Monday it would buy Saks Inc in a $2.4 billion deal that would add prime real estate to its portfolio and bring the luxury chain to its home market of Canada.

HBC, which operates Lord & Taylor in the United States and Hudson Bay in Canada, is offering $16 per share, a 30 percent premium over levels in May right before media reports emerged Saks had put itself up for sale.

Shares of Saks rose 3.4 percent to $15.87 in premarket trading.

HBC is paying $2.9 billion in cash, including the assumption of Saks' debt.

There is a 40-day "go-shop" period when Saks can seek better bids, but the company said it did not expect to get any. It anticipates the deal will close by year-end.

Saks, famous for its iconic Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, will operate separately within HBC and have its own merchandising, marketing and store operations teams. It will also keep its New York headquarters.

HBC plans to bring Saks department stores and outlet stores into Canada by converting some of its own locations.

HBC Chief Executive Officer Richard Baker said on a conference call that he saw a potential for up to seven Saks department stores and 25 Off Fifth outlets in Canada, and noted the company would open them as quickly as possible.

That will bring it into competition with retailers like the high-end Holt Renfrew chain as well as Nordstrom Inc , which is opening its first Canadian stores in 2014.

The combined company would have flagship stores in cities such as New York, Montreal and Toronto, and HBC said it would consider creating a real estate investment trust to benefit from that portfolio. After U.S. department store chain Dillard's Inc announced plans in 2011 to form a REIT, its shares soared.

Saks' Fifth Avenue flagship, in operation since 1924, generates about $600 million in sales a year, and by some estimates, the building is worth $1 billion.

"The Fifth Avenue store is a gem and everything else is second to that," said independent retail analyst Walter Loeb. "Many of the stores are not as productive."

Saks in recent years has closed department stores in markets like Portland, Oregon, and Dallas, but pushed its Saks Off Fifth outlet chain. It has 41 full-service stores and 67 outlets.

Before the speculation about the deal started in May, Saks' shares had last hit the $16 level in early 2008, before the recession decimated luxury spending.

In late 2008, faced with collapsing sales, Saks slashed prices, decimating margins and training shoppers to expect discounts. It took three years for the retailer to start selling closer to full price.

Saks has struggled to keep pace with rivals Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus Group Inc , which each get a much bigger proportion of sales online than it does.

Saks' two largest shareholders are Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Italian luxury businessman Diego Della Valle, who own a combined 30.5 percent of the stock.

HBC will finance the deal with about $1 billion in new equity, $1.9 billion in senior secured loans and $400 million of senior unsecured notes, as well as cash on hand.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch was HBC's lead financial adviser, with RBC Capital Markets providing additional services. Stikeman Elliott LLP and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP were the Canadian retailer's legal counsel.

On Saks' side, Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Securities were financial advisers and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz provided legal counsel.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; Additional reporting by Dhanya Skariachan.; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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Drugmaker Perrigo to buy Ireland's Elan for $8.6 billion

By Padraic Halpin and Sam Cage

DUBLIN (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Perrigo agreed to buy Elan for $8.6 billion in a deal that will hand it tax savings from being domiciled in Ireland and royalties from a blockbuster multiple sclerosis treatment.

The deal, agreed on Monday, ends a bitter takeover battle in which Elan rejected three lower bids from U.S. investment firm Royalty Pharma amid injunctions, court hearings and a war of words before putting itself up for sale last month.

Michigan-based Perrigo, which makes over-the-counter pharmaceuticals for the in-store brand market and has a market value of some $12 billion, will pay $6.25 per share in cash plus $10.25 per share in stock, a premium of about 10.5 percent over Elan's closing price on Friday.

Elan shares rose 3.8 percent on Monday to $15.5, close to a bid that analysts expect will be snapped up by shareholders who rejected Royalty's successive overtures. Perrigo shares dropped 6.7 percent to $125.3

"Elan has uncovered an excellent offer for its shareholders, substantially ahead of the level Royalty Pharma could achieve," Berenberg Biotech analysts said in a note to clients.

For Elan and Chief Executive Kelly Martin, who took over the firm in 2003 when its share price had sunk to $2, the Perrigo deal is vindication for rejecting Royalty's advances.

Martin, a low-key former Merrill Lynch banker, took a series of verbal attacks in a four-month saga that frequently turned ugly.

In an open letter to the Elan board last month, Royalty predicted that Elan was embarking on a lengthy and likely fruitless effort to find a buyer willing to better its offer.

Royalty's final bid was $13 in cash per share as well as a "contingent value right" that could have added a further $2.50 per share if Elan's blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri hit certain sales milestones.

According to Deutsche Bank analysts, Perrigo's offer is a significant premium to their $12 per share valuation of Elan, reflecting the tax advantage, and worth about a fifth more than their calculation of the Royalty bid.

TAX ADVANTAGE

Reuters reported exclusively last week that Perrigo and New York-based Forest Laboratories Inc were preparing to bid.

Elan is especially appealing for companies like Perrigo that can easily move their headquarters abroad because of the very low 12.5 percent corporate tax rate in Ireland, compared with 35 percent in the United States.

Fellow generic drugmaker Actavis' $5 billion acquisition of Dublin-based Warner Chilcott in May allowed it lower its tax rate to 17 percent from 28 percent.

Hundreds of U.S. companies have subsidiaries in Ireland for the same purpose. That practice prompted international criticism after the U.S. Senate revealed that technology giant Apple paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits channeled through the country.

The Elan deal buys Perrigo a full tax domicile in Ireland, bringing the bulk of its income under the Irish tax regime. It will use $4.35 billion in bridge financing from Barclays and HSBC plus cash to fund the deal, which also brings it Elan's $1.9 billion cash pile.

Perrigo Chief Executive Joe Papa said the acquisition would cut its effective tax rate to 17 percent in the first 12 to 18 months from around 30 percent now. Chief Financial Officer Judy Brown told an analyst call that it may go even lower over time.

"We think it's financially compelling and when you put it together with an Irish domicile that has operational tax synergies, we think it's a really compelling story," Papa told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The Perrigo boss, for whom Elan is the largest of more than a dozen deals he has led since taking over in 2006, said the company remained committed to the United States where it employs over half of its 9,000 workers. It will remain listed in New York and Tel Aviv , he said.

Papa said Ireland would give Perrigo a gateway into the rest of Europe and saw the Tysabri royalty, worth of up to 25 percent on future sales, as a means to fund future opportunities.

Elan sold its 50 percent interest in Tysabri to U.S. partner Biogen Idec in February for $3.25 billion but retained royalties in the drug whose sales rose to $1.6 billion in 2012.

Elan, founded as a private company in 1969, also drew initial interest from Allergan Inc , Mylan International and Endo HealthSolutions Inc , several people familiar with the situation have said.

Barclays advised Perrigo on the deal, while Citigroup Global Markets, Davy and Davy Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley & Co. International and Ondra LLP acted for Elan.

($1 = 0.7539 euros)

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Erica Billingham)

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Vivendi selling most of Activision stake for $8.2 billion

A logo of entertainment-to-telecoms conglomerate Vivendi is seen on the main entrance of the company's headquarters in Paris July 23, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Christian Hartmann

PARIS/BANGALORE | Fri Jul 26, 2013 1:30am EDT

PARIS/BANGALORE (Reuters) - France's Vivendi (VIV.PA) said on Friday that it planned to sell 85 percent of its stake in Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) to the video games maker and its management for $8.2 billion, its second blockbuster deal in the past week.

The buyback follows weeks of speculation the French media to telecoms conglomerate was looking for ways to pull cash out of the largest U.S. video games publisher as part of a wider restructuring aimed at cutting debt and refocusing its business.

Still, the move is surprising in some ways, given that Vivendi has talked up its media assets as the company's future and that Activision is its largest and most profitable media asset.

In another prong of the restructuring, Vivendi earlier this week announced it was in exclusive talks to sell its controlling stake in Maroc Telecom for 4.2 billion euros ($5.56 billion).

Activision said early on Friday it would buy back 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion.

An investor group led by Chief Executive Bobby Kotick and Co-Chairman Brian Kelly has agreed to separately purchase about 172 million Activision shares from Vivendi for $2.34 billion.

Vivendi is selling the shares for $13.60 each, a 10 percent discount to Activision's closing price on Thursday.

After the completion of the deal, Vivendi will no longer be the majority shareholder, but will retain a stake of 83 million shares or about 12 percent of Activision.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore and Christian Plumb in Paris; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee and James Regan)

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Vivendi selling most of Activision stake for $8.2 billion

A logo of entertainment-to-telecoms conglomerate Vivendi is seen on the main entrance of the company's headquarters in Paris July 23, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Christian Hartmann

PARIS/BANGALORE | Fri Jul 26, 2013 1:30am EDT

PARIS/BANGALORE (Reuters) - France's Vivendi (VIV.PA) said on Friday that it planned to sell 85 percent of its stake in Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) to the video games maker and its management for $8.2 billion, its second blockbuster deal in the past week.

The buyback follows weeks of speculation the French media to telecoms conglomerate was looking for ways to pull cash out of the largest U.S. video games publisher as part of a wider restructuring aimed at cutting debt and refocusing its business.

Still, the move is surprising in some ways, given that Vivendi has talked up its media assets as the company's future and that Activision is its largest and most profitable media asset.

In another prong of the restructuring, Vivendi earlier this week announced it was in exclusive talks to sell its controlling stake in Maroc Telecom for 4.2 billion euros ($5.56 billion).

Activision said early on Friday it would buy back 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion.

An investor group led by Chief Executive Bobby Kotick and Co-Chairman Brian Kelly has agreed to separately purchase about 172 million Activision shares from Vivendi for $2.34 billion.

Vivendi is selling the shares for $13.60 each, a 10 percent discount to Activision's closing price on Thursday.

After the completion of the deal, Vivendi will no longer be the majority shareholder, but will retain a stake of 83 million shares or about 12 percent of Activision.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore and Christian Plumb in Paris; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee and James Regan)

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Vivendi sells Activision stake for $8.2 billion

PARIS (AP) — Vivendi SA is selling most of its majority stake in video game maker Activision Blizzard Inc. for $8.2 billion as the French conglomerate tries to strengthen its balance sheet.

In a statement Friday, Vivendi said that 429 million of its shares will be sold to Activision itself, which makes such games as "World of Warcraft." Another 172 million shares will be sold to a consortium of key investors including Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick and Co-chairman Brian Kelly.

With the sale, at $13.60 per share, Vivendi will reduce its holdings from 61.1 percent of Activision's common shares to 12 percent. The French company will continue to hold 83 million Activision shares after the sale, expected to close in September.

Vivendi has held a majority stake in Santa Monica, California-based Activision since 2008.

Vivendi , whose shares were up 1.35 percent to 16.20 euros in trading in Paris after the announcement, said in the statement that the sale "provides the group with greater financial flexibility and creates value for our shareholders."

Part of the cash will be used to strengthen the balance sheet and maintain its credit rating. Vivendi has been trying to restructure and sell off some businesses in its diverse conglomerate, and announced earlier this week that it's in talks to sell its stake in Maroc Telecom.

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India's Lanco Infra starts process to restructure $1.3 billion debt

By Neha Dasgupta

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Lanco Infratech Ltd has started a process to restructure debts totaling 75 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) after economic weakness impacted the performance of some of its businesses such as power and engineering and construction.

If the process is approved by its lenders, Lanco would be the second debt-laden company to go for a major loan restructuring within nine months, after lenders to wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy in November agreed to restructure about 110 billion rupees of its debt.

Lanco, which produces power, builds roads and constructs residential and commercial buildings, has asked banks to restructure the debt, a company statement said on Saturday.

The Business Standard newspaper earlier said Lanco had started discussion with its bankers to restructure debt worth 90 billion rupees.

The company, which acquired Australia's Griffin Coal Mining Co for about $760 million in 2011, said the debt restructuring would involve Lanco Infratech as a standalone unit and would not impact any of its units including the Australian business.

Banks bring cases to the so-called corporate debt restructuring process to negotiate relaxed repayment terms with struggling borrowers.

Many lenders have expressed worry about loans to the power, commercial real estate, construction, aviation, textile and metals sectors, which are among those hardest-hit by slowing growth and sluggish policymaking that has deterred investment.

"The current adverse macro-economic situation that has been prevailing in India since last 12 months has affected the performance of LITL's EPC business as well as the subsidiary business," the company said referring to the engineering, procurement and construction business.

"We expect this situation to remain for another 18 to 24 months time," it said, adding the restructuring process will help Lanco to complete its ongoing projects on time.

Lanco, which had total debt of 336 billion rupees as of the end of March, posted losses in the last two financial years, as the weak Indian economy, growing at its slowest in a decade, hit infrastructure investment.

Project bottlenecks, largely because of problems in acquiring land, and high funding costs, have also sapped investment in the infrastructure industry in Asia's third-largest economy.

(Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Robert Birsel and David Holmes)

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Greece gets green light for 4 billion euro payment, EU says

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone officials have approved the transfer of 4 billion euros ($5.3 billion) of funding to Greece and euro zone governments are expected to approve disbursement by Monday, the European Commission said on Friday.

"With the proviso that the national approval procedures are completed, which we expect to happen by Monday, the disbursement can take place," Commission spokesman Simon O'Connor told a briefing, referring to the approval by euro zone governments.

The money approved amounted to 4 billion euros, O'Connor said, split between 2.5 billion from the euro zone's temporary bailout fund, the EFSF, and income generated from national central banks' holdings of Greek government bonds.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Adrian Croft)

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New Anglo boss targets $3.5 billion lift to fix lagging miner

By Clara Ferreira-Marques

LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo American's new boss laid out his blueprint for a turnaround of the underperforming miner on Friday, vowing to cut costs, halve a $17 billion project pipeline and revive lagging mines to boost cash and returns by 2016.

A straight-talking Australian engineer who joined Anglo from South African gold producer AngloGold in April, Mark Cutifani outlined his first plans alongside better-than-expected half-year results that still showed a 15 percent drop in profit.

Anglo, the smallest of the major diversified miners, has trailed behind its peers for much of the past decade, most recently battling labor unrest in South Africa, where it still generates half its earnings, and multi-billion dollar cost overruns in Brazil.

"Are we tapping the potential we have as a group? The answer is no," Cutifani told investors and analysts, branding Anglo's performance as "unacceptably poor".

"Over the last eight (quarters) only 11 percent of operations are delivering consistently against their targets - we have to up that."

The shake-up offered no quick fix for woes that have accumulated over decades at Anglo, or specific solutions for either of its two worst headaches - South African platinum and the much-delayed Minas Rio Brazilian iron ore project.

But analysts welcomed plans to streamline a cumbersome corporate structure, cut 2013 capital spending by $1 billion - largely from Minas Rio - and do more to get better prices for its commodities by boosting marketing. That last element alone should provide an annual $500 million boost.

"It is not about wholesale or radical changes at the operating level, but it is about introducing a much more disciplined approach to planning, to execution and delivery on the objectives we have," Cutifani said.

Anglo has seen total capital employed more than double since 2007, but the rate of return on that capital has more than halved. It will now target a return on capital employed (ROCE) - a measure of the value a company gets from its assets - of 15 percent by 2016 - compared to 11 percent in the first half and 8 percent for the year to date on spot prices.

To get there, it will need to boost its cash flow by an annual $3.5 billion - $1.3 billion of that was detailed on Friday to include cutting overhead costs and slashing by a third the amount spent on projects not yet approved by the board.

Cutifani did not detail the remaining $2.2 billion, though much will come from improving performance at its mines, and even asset sales. Businesses, he said, would have to "pay their way".

AMBITIOUS

Analysts said there remained questions around divestments, execution and Anglo's balance sheet as debts rise. Anglo shares climbed by as much as 2 percent against a flat FTSE 100 index in London <.ftse> before settling 0.9 percent up at 1210 GMT.

"There has been good progress on the cost cutting. The key issue going forward will be to see that is realized," analyst Paul Gait at Sanford Bernstein said.

Anglo, like many of its peers, said it would also consider opportunistic asset sales, though Cutifani said there would be no "bazaar sale". He confirmed the group was searching for a partner at $8.8 billion Minas Rio, adding there had been a lot of inquiries, though having "stubbed its toe" on the project Anglo was now not under pressure to sell. The financial woes of existing partner Eike Batista, should he fail to pay his share, would cost Anglo a maximum of $300 million, he said.

Cutifani will also seek to simplify the group by cutting its 10 business units to 6 - undoing changes brought in by previous chief executive Cynthia Carroll. That will involve merging thermal and metallurgical coal together, and base metals.

Cutifani's former right-hand man at AngloGold, Tony O'Neill, also joins Anglo as group director for - among other things - mining technology, business performance, asset optimization and projects.

Anglo, the first of the diversified majors to publish results, said underlying operating profit fell in the six months to $3.3 billion, ahead of a consensus estimate of $3.12 billion. Underlying earnings per share (EPS) came to $0.98.

Anglo held its interim dividend at 32 cents per share.

(Reporting by Clara Ferreira-Marques; Editing by Patrick Graham)

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