Mitsubishi Motors Corp said on Friday its domestic vehicle sales are expected to fall 11.3 per cent to 685,000 units in the current business year to next March from a year earlier. The company said in a statement that its vehicle exports would increase by 19.5 per cent to 575,000 units in 1997-98 from a year earlier. In the first half of 1997-98, the car-maker's domestic sales dropped 12.5 per cent to 315,000 units from the same period a year earlier, while exports jumped by 51.0 per cent to 314,000 units, it said.

Nam Fong sells HK$750 m China property project: Nam Fong International Holdings Ltd said on Friday it has agreed to sell its entire interest in Nam Fong International Commercial Building Ltd to third party China Rise Investment Ltd for HK$750 million. Nam Fong said the sale would generate a profit of about HK$200 million which would be used to finance the company's property development projects in China.

Shell plans Russian bid with Gazprom: The Royal Dutch Shell group is planning to link up with Russia's Rao Gazprom to bid for a Russian oil company, according to media reports. Shell was said to be ready to support a planned $1 billion convertible bond issue by Gazprom. The Anglo-Dutch oil group hopes that by teaming up with Gazprom it will be able to acquire Rosneft, the last big Russian oil company to be privatised. The reports said Rosneft had confirmed that Gazprom and Shell were on the verge of concluding a deal.

UK police smash big US bond fraud ring: British police has arrested several people over a suspected fraud involving $800 million in US treasury bonds. A police spokesman said a US secret service agent attached to the London police helped to smash the alleged fraud ring. He said the operation apparently involved the deposit off fraudulent US government bonds with a face value of $800 million into a bank in London financial district. Those arrested, including an American and a Taiwanese businessman, were being questioned at Bishopsgate police station in the city, the spokesman said.

BMW is interested in Rolls-Royce: German car-maker BMW admitted for the first time that it is interested in buying Rolls-Royce, the British luxury car company being sold off by owners Vickers. A member of BMW's board, Horst Telschik, said on Germany's Inforadio channel on Thursday that the Munich firm, which already owns Britain's Rover company, would not pay "just any price" for Rolls. Telschik said that several rival firms would probably bid for Rolls, but BMW had an advantage after supplying the British company with parts for a long time.

Vickers may return part of Rolls proceeds: British defence and engineering group Vickers Plc said on Friday it could return part of proceeds from its planned sale of Rolls-Royce Motors to shareholders. Vickers put the British car-making unit up for sale last week and analysts expect it to get at least 400 million pounds for it. In a note to shareholders, Vickers' chairman Colin Chandler said: "Depending on the level of net proceeds from the sale and the scale and timing of those investment and acquisition opportunities, we will additionally address the question of a return of any surplus of any surplus capital to shareholders."

Petron says reviewing expansion plans: Petron Corp said on Friday it was reviewing its expansion plans after the Supreme Court ruled the oil deregulation law as unconstitutional. "We our reviewing our expansion. It's very difficult under these conditions. We do not know where the whole thing is going," Petron chairman Monico Jacob told Reuters. Asked what plans would be subject to the review, Jacob said: "Everything."

French roadblocks still in place after talks: Over eight hours after the end of talks aimed at ending France's crippling truck strike, there were still 150 roadblocks in place around the country, traffic authorities said. Some 130 were "filter blocks" which allowed private vehicles, but not lorries, to drive through. The other 20, manned by hardliners, entirely blocked traffic, authorities said. The truckers were staying in place pending a final decision by unions on whether or not to end their strike which began on Sunday and has targeted oil refineries and depots. Some 40 percent of French petrol stations are now void of supplies.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.