JING HUA TIMES Finance News Highlights 2009-3-10

1.      In 2-3 years, East Group Co. will purchase petroleum and mining resource enterprises in East Asia, North America, Africa etc. Because of the global finical crisis, there are many opportunities for Chinese private enterprises to invest abroad.

-East Group Co.,established in 1978, is a Chinese company that invests in the banking and securities industry, home building materials trade, harbor transportation and mining resource.

 

2.      Merck & Co will buy Schering-Plough Corporation for $41.1 billion in stock and cash in a deal that gives the company a competitive advantage in the pharmaceutical industry. Main News

-Schering-Plough is an innovation-driven, science-centered global health care company.

-Merck & Co., Inc. is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company. Established in 1891, Merck discovers, develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs.

 

3.      The wholesale price of edible oil in Beijing has gone down. B37

 

4.      On April 1^st, Japan will carry out a new policy for "Long-term goods security check and label" for water heaters. Chinese producers, in order to export to Japan, will have to add in the label description of the product the expiry date and repairing methods. B36

 

5.      Japan posted its first current-account deficit in 13 years in January after exports collapsed amid the global recession.

-The deficit stood at 172.8 billion yen ($1.8 billion), the Ministry of Finance said in Tokyo yesterday. The median estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a gap of 15.3 billion yen. It was the biggest shortfall since January 1985, the earliest year for which there is comparable data. B38

 

6.      On March 8^th, The World Bank presented an economic report, saying the global economy is suffering the worst time since World War II. B38

7.      American International Group Inc (AIG) appealed for its fourth US government rescue. The company claims that its collapse could cripple money-market funds, force European banks to raise capital, cause competing life insurers to fail and wipe out the taxpayers' stake in the firm.

-AIG needed immediate help from the Federal Reserve and Treasury to prevent a "catastrophic" collapse that would be worse for markets than the demise last year of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, according to a 21-page draft AIG presentation dated Feb 26, labeled as "strictly confidential" and circulated among federal and state regulators. B38