Malaysian electricity generator YTL Power International Bhd has signed a deal to expand and privatise a power plant in Zimbabwe, the company said over the weekend. "The Government of Zimbabwe and YTL Power International Bhdon 15th October 1988 signed a letter of award for the privatisation and expansion of the Hwange Power Station," YTL Power said in a statement. The power station consists of four 120 megawatt and two 220MW coal fired units and is owned and operated by state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA). Under a letter of intent signed in 1996, YTL Corp Bhd, YTL Power's parent company, was to pay Z$6 billion ($179 million) for a 51 per cent stake in the privatised plant.

Commbank interested in Puma

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia managing director David Murray said on Sunday the bank would be interested in Macquarie Bank Ltd's Puma securitisation business, which has been put up for sale. "I think we'd be interested in thatbusiness because of our position in the Australian mortgage market," Murray said in an interview on the Business Sunday programme."The Puma system is a securitisation system essentially so we'd definitely be interested but everything's got a price," he said. The Commonwealth Bank has the largest mortgage book of any major Australian bank.

Nepali bank posts profit in 1997/98 after losses

A Nepali bank, The Everest Bank Limited, has posted a net profit of 25 million Rupees ($369,822) in net profit in the fourth year of its operations in the fiscal year 1997/98 (mid-July/mid- July), a bank official said. A joint venture between Nepali promoters and India's Punjab National Bank (PNB), had wiped out its past losses, Surendra Singh Bhandari, the bank's executive director told Reuters. PNB, holding 20 percent stakes in the Nepali bank, has a management contract for five years that ends in 2002.

German GDP growth just under 3%

Outgoing economics minister Guenteb Rexrodt said on Thursdaythat German gross domestic product would expand by just under three per cent this year. Warning the new government against altering the nation's economic ground rules, Rexrodt said Germany's economy was not seriously threatened by the Asian crisis, was beginning to add jobs and now offered favourable conditions for investment. "The growth in GDP may run in this year -- as expected -- to just under 3 per cent," he said in a statement.

FAA urges airlines to replace insulation

Almost all of the world's 12,000 passenger jets have been recommended replacement of their insulation as soon as possible, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said. New tests, it explains, are expected to show that the insulation can catch fire when exposed to high heat. The recommendation is likely to be made mandatory after new flammability tests and specifications are developed in about six months, the FAA said. The cost of carrying out the FAA's recommendation will be billions of dollars, aviationofficials at Washington said adding that there seemed to be no alternative. The material under scrutiny is not wiring insulation but rather looks similar to home insulation and is used to minimise noise and trap heat.

Australia's C&W Optus share offer opens Monday

The share offer by Australia's second biggest telecommunications group Cable and Wireless Optus Pty Ltd opens on Monday amid signs of strong interest from potential investors. C&W Optus said on Sunday that since the share offer was announced on September 30, the company had had more than 15,000 calls from Mayne Nickless Ltd shareholders and retail investors. Mayne Nickless is selling its 25 per cent Optus stake in the offer. In a complicated deal, C&W Optus plans an initial public offering (IPO) and a balance sheet restructuring.