Toyota to buy back up to 8 million shares: Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday that it would spend up to 30 billion yen to buy back up eight million of its shares. "We have not yet decided on a schedule for the additional share buyback. The plan announced today is separate from our plan announced last June," a Toyota spokesman said. In June last year, Toyota said it would spend up to 100billion yen to buy back up to 27 million shares in the year to June 1998. From June 1997 to February 24 1998, Toyota bought back 23.843 million shares worth 81.94 billion yen, the spokesman said. Violence at HK bourse over investor losses: Scuffles erupted at the door of Hong Kong's stock exchange on Wednesday as scores of investors hurt in the collapse of a brokerage tried to storm the building. Scuffles broke out between police and clients of collapsed brokerage CA Pacific Securities Ltd. Witnesses said more than 50 angry demonstrators tried to storm the stock exchange building demanding their cash or sharesback. But police barred entry, leading to clashes. The protesters urged the stock exchange, regulators and liquidators to speed up the refund of their cash and shares.
General Accident says 5,000 jobs to go: Around 5,000 jobs are expected to go following the 15-billion pound merger of two of Britain's largest insurers on Wednesday, according to the chief executive elect of the new group. Bob Scott, currently chief executive of General Accident which announced the deal with Commercial Union early Wednesday told Reuters the jobs would be lost from the combined group's 53,000 staff worldwide. The one-off costs of the deal, which is expected to produce annual cost savings of some 225 million pounds within two years.
Raytheon seen announcing lay-offs: Raytheon Co is expected to announce on Friday thousands of lay-offs and charges of $350 million to $400 million per year over the next two years as part of a massive merger, analysts said. Raytheon said its defense unit would hold a conferencecallwith the media at 1330 EST on Friday, but officials declined to disclose the topic. Analysts said they expect Raytheon to cut 8,000 to 10,000jobs and close about a dozen defense plants to consolidate and cut costs as part of its $10-billion takeover of Hughes Electronics Corp's defense operations last year.
Global airlines to use Euro from January 1999: World airlines have agreed to use the European single currency, the euro, for sales and ticketing from January 1 next year when it is due to be launched, their global body IATA said. IATA, the 260-member International Air Transport Association, said the decision had been taken by consensus at a previously unannounced meeting in Geneva last week. In a statement issued with the announcement, the body's director-general Pierre Jeanniot said the airlines were responding to clear demand from their major European corporate customers in Europe.
MAS says no knowledge of stake sale: Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) said on Wednesday that theairline has no knowledge of any plan by its chairman Tajudin Ramli to dispose his indirect shareholding in the National carrier. "We, therefore, have no announcement to make regarding this matter," MAS said in reply to a Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange query over a local newspaper report that Tajudin will dispose his 29 per cent stake in MAS to Permodalan Nasional Bhd. The report came on the heels of talk that many corporate heavyweights in the country are facing cash flow problems because of the currency and equity market turmoil.
Copyright(c)1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
