Paracelsus Healthcare Corp said that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has authorized a formal private investigation of certain accounting and Financial reporting issues. The hospital and nursing home operator said in a news release accompanying its first-quarter results that the SEC probe authorization had been expected. The same issues were the focus of an internal inquiry morethan a year ago. In 1997, Paracelsus formed a special committee to investigate an earnings shortfall from the third quarter of 1996. The committee discovered several reporting and accounting irregularities and one member of the special committee resigned as a director over the matter.

Energy Equity in $51m move into India:

Power station group Energy Equity Ltd said it would take a 30-per cent stake worth $58.5 million in a power project in southern India. Energy Equity said it would develop the 1,200 megawatt Vypeen Combined Cycle Power Project in Kerala state in twostages with Pembinaam Redzai Sdn Bhd (PR) of Malaysia. It said it would contribute $51 million in equity towards the total capital cost of $570 million for the 680 mw stage one and then another $7.5 million over the next 12 months.

Southern Steel sees challenge in profits:

Malaysia's Southern Steel Bhd said it expects to make a profit this year but that the regional economic crisis will make it difficult to match last year's results. In its 1997 annual report, Southern Steel said "...provided that the currency and financial crisis in the region do not further deteriorate, the group expects to remain profitable although it will be a challenge to match last year's result". For calendar 1997, the company posted net profit of 41.81million ringgit or 14.8 cents a share. That was down sharply from 120.70 million ringgit or 43.1 cents a share reported in 1996.

Hitachi denies mulling overhaul of operations:

Hitachi Ltd on Tuesday denied a newspaper report it had decided to introduce a corporatestructure under which its business divisions would operate autonomously by 2000. "We just introduced in 1997 a new business group structure aimed at boosting the independence of various operations and do not plan at this moment to change the current framework drastically," a company spokesman said. He added, however, that the company would continue to consider various ways to increase the independence of its business groups.

Instrumentarium jumps on good Q1 result:

Shares in Finnish medical equipment maker Instrumentarium jumped as its first quarter result came in at or above estimates, analysts said. "There was nothing surprising in the report but the resultwas good, slightly above my expectations," one analyst said. Instrumentarium's first-quarter profit before extraordinary items was 131 million markka ($24.3 million) compared to 56 million in the same period last year. Earnings per share rose to 4.47 markka from 1.95 markka.

Bank Plus hires First Alliance's CFO:

Bank Plus Corp hashired First Alliance Corp's chief financial officer, Mark Mason, as its own CFO, the companies said Tuesday. In addition to serving as Bank Plus CFO, Mason will act as executive vice president and chief operating officer, the companies said in separate news releases. First Alliance said that Mason's vacancy will be filled by vice president of finance John Michel. Mason's departure from First Alliance and appointment at Bank Plus is effective May 18, they said. Mason previously had been CFO of Bank Plus' Fidelity FederalBank unit.

Gazprom ally, Ukraine talk on restructuring debt:

National Reserve Bank, an ally of Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom, is in talks with Ukraine to restructure domestic bonds covering gas debts into internationally traded instruments, it said on Tuesday. "We are carrying out talks on restructuring Ukrainian debtinto instruments acceptable on international markets," NRB president Alexander Lebedev told a news conference. NRB has $800 million of the Ukrainian domesticbonds, issued in 1995, but Lebedev did not say what size the programme would be.

G-15 for review of financial arrangements:

India and other G-15 members have called for an urgent review of the existing international financial arrangments to ensure their adequacy in the face of the rapidly evolving financial markets, emphasising the need for a constructive and positive North-South dialogue to meet the challenges of globalisation.

India's view that terrorism not only undermined the political integrity but also hampered and hindered economic growth and development was supported by all member countries of the G-15. ``Terrorist acts undermine political integrity, destroy social fabric and disrupt democratic institutions. They also undermine economic growth and development. We strongly condemn all kinds of terrorism and call for enhanced international cooperation to prevent and combat this menace.''