December 25: Volvo Cars Japan Corp, the Japanese unit of AB Volvo, said on Thursday it would offer its luxury S70 Sedan and V70 station wagon models at a special discount price for a limited 1,700 units from Friday. The domestic selling price for fully equipped models will be reduced by 450,000 yen to 3.95 million yen for the S70 And 4.15 million yen for the V70. In Japan, cars dealers have been struggling with poor domestic demand since April this year mainly due to an increase in Japan's sales tax to five per cent from three per cent.

Japan surplus rise due to last year's data: A large year-on-year increase in Japan's trade surplus for the first 10 days of December was mainly due to a small rise in the surplus a year earlier, a finance ministry official told reporters on Thursday. The ministry said earlier that Japan's customs-cleared trade surplus rose 1,655.1 per cent to 107.29 billion yen in the first 10 days of December compared with a revised surplus of 6.11 billion yen in the same period a year earlier. "Japan's trade surplus was shrinking rapidly last year, resulting in a small surplus in the first 10 days of December last year," the official said.

Gensia to take $10m charge on unit sale: Pharmaceutical company Gensia Sicor Inc said it had sold a majority interest in its medical products unit and will take a related fourth-quarter charge of about $10 million. The sale of the interest in Gensia Automedics to a private investor group led by Galen Associates and Wellcome Trust leaves Gensia with a 19 percent equity interest in the unit, the company said in a news release. Gensia, explaining the sale, said it wants to focus on its core specialty pharmaceutical businesses.

Russian-launched foreign satellite in trouble: A telecommunications satellite belonging to Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications and launched by Russia early on Thursday has deviated from its orbit and is expected to fall back to earth, a Russian space centre spokesman said. The spokesman for the Khrunichev Space Centre (KSC) could not immediately say whether the problem was in the Asiasat-3 satellite itself or in the Russian-made Proton booster rocket which carried it into space. Russia on Tuesday put off the launch of Asiasat-3 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan because of bad weather -- an unprecedented move underlining the launch's value to Moscow.

Uzbeks seek investors to develop lithium deposit: Uzbekistan is seeking foreign investors to develop its large lithium deposit, an official from the former Soviet republic's state geology and mineral resources committee said. "The reserves of this deposit are estimated at 165,500tonnes of lithium oxide," Alexander Ogarkov, in charge of the committee's geological department, told Reuters. Ogarkov said the Shavazsai deposit, located 100 km (60miles) from the capital Tashkent in eastern Uzbekistan, also holds an estimated 10,000 tonnes of rubidium oxide and 7,000 tonnes of caesium oxide.

Avant! Corp named in class action: Investors in Avant! Corp have filed a class action against the software company alleging it made fraudulent statements about its use of proprietary software technology, plaintiff's lawyers said. The complaint, filed on behalf of shareholders who boughtcommon stock in Avant! from March 29, 1996, through April 11, 1997, alleges the company and some of its senior officers failed to disclose their allegedly wrongful use of proprietary software technology owned by competitor Cadence Design Systems Inc. vant! stock dropped more than 50 per cent on April 15 after felony charges were filed against the company alleging theft of trade secrets. The shareholders are represented by Berger & Montague and Gold Bennett & Cera in the case, which was filed in May in the US district court for the northern district of California.

Citicorp unit files $5 bn shelf registration: Citicorp Mortgage Inc, a unit of Citicorp, filed a shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday to sell up to $5 billion in pass-through certificates. When combined with previous registration, Citicorp will have a total offering of $5,367,357,066 in certificates available for sale. Net proceeds will be used for the purpose of originating or purchasing new residential mortgage loans from the originators and for other general corporate purposes, which may include the repayment of debt to Citicorp, the filing said.

Central and South-West Corp rights plan approved: Central and South West Corp, a public utility holding company, said Wednesday it gained regulatory approval for its stockholder rights plan. Under the plan, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, stockholders of record January 6 will receive one right for each outstanding share of the company's common stock, Central and South West said in a news release. The plan was first announced September 29 and is intended to assure fair and equal treatment for all the stockholders in the event of a hostile takeover attempt. The plan was amended December 21 to exempt the company's proposed transaction with American Electric Power Company.Inc.

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