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CA-BUSINESS Summary

06/07/09

Asia stocks slip as safety favored

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Markets got off to a hesitant start Monday as investor doubts on the staying power of a global recovery kept Asian stocks soggy and currencies subdued ahead of a much-expanded Group of Eight meeting this week. With risk out of favor for the moment, Japan's Nikkei <.N225> fell 1.38 percent and the MSCI index of Asia ex-Japan eased 0.41 percent.

Judge approves sale of GM assets

NEW YORK/BANGALORE (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Sunday approved General Motors Corp's bankruptcy sale in a move that will allow the company's most profitable assets to exit bankruptcy protection under government ownership. Judge Robert Gerber of the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan said the sale would "prevent the death of the patient on the operating table."

Rio sells American food packaging assets for $1.2 billion

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto further improved its cash position on Monday by agreeing to sell its Americas food packaging business for $1.2 billion, and analysts said they expected more asset sales to follow soon. Rio Tinto, which only last week raised $15.2 billion in one of the world's largest-ever rights issues, will sell the assets to U.S.-based Bemis Co Inc for $1 billion in cash, with the rest potentially paid in the form of Bemis shares.

Oil falls towards $64 on economic gloom

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil fell to a five-week low near $64 a barrel on Monday, pressured by doubts over the prospects of an early global economic recovery and a firmer dollar. The U.S. jobless rate reached a 26-year high and Euro zone unemployment is at the highest in a decade, reports showed last week. The dollar rose on Monday, limiting the appeal of oil as an alternative investment.

Hybrids boost Toyota and Honda car sales

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp's <7203.T> Prius hybrid was Japan's best-selling car in June while Honda Motor Co's <7267.T> rival Insight ranked fourth, helping the two hybrid leaders dominate the list of top-selling models. Sales of the Prius, which was remodeled in mid-May, jumped 258 percent to 22,292 units from the year-earlier month, data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association showed.

Big Canadian parts makers may grow even bigger

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's top auto parts makers are likely to take more market share and new sales from their smaller rivals as the sector consolidates in the wake of the upheaval that drove General Motors Corp and Chrysler into bankruptcy. The size and scale of the big listed players, and the growing desire of automakers to assure stable supplies, mean their shares may still offer good value even after their recent rally, analysts say.

More bidders interested in Porsche stake: report

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Three more bidders are interested in taking a stake in German sports car maker Porsche, rivaling investment plans by Qatar, German magazine Focus reported on Saturday. In an advance release of remarks due to be published on Monday, Focus said without citing sources that a Chinese and a Russian sovereign wealth fund as well as a hedge fund were interested.

GM Europe head says to sell Opel to Magna soon: report

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - General Motors Europe President Carl-Peter Forster expects to sell German unit Opel to Canadian auto parts supplier Magna soon, he told a German newspaper. "I am quite confident after a top-level meeting of GM and Magna, where broad consent was reached," Forster told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) in an interview which will be published on Sunday. "It's only about details."

"Brave" post-Lehman M&A rewarded by market -study

LONDON (Reuters) - Stock markets rewarded companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Cisco who were brave enough to make acquisitions in the months after Lehman Brothers' collapse, a study released on Monday showed. Although firms who made purchases worth $100 million or more suffered an average 25.5 percent fall in their stock price, they outperformed the wider market by 6.3 percentage points, the Towers Perrin/Cass Business School research found.

Teck equity sale pushes TSX to higher close

TORONTO (Reuters) -Toronto's main stock index closed higher on Friday as Teck Resources Ltd's equity sale to China Investment Corp helped lift the resource-heavy market, but trading volumes were thin due to the Independence Day holiday in the United States. Teck said it will sell a 17.2 percent stake in the company to state-owned CIC through a private placement that will raise C$1.74 billion ($1.5 billion). The deal will help Teck pay down debt, while expanding China's portfolio of commodity investments.

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