Indonesia's Pertamina, Sembawang sign gas accord: Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina and Singapore's Sembawang Gas, a unit of Sembawang Corporation Ltd signed a gas accord on Monday, a Pertamina official said. Under the agreement, Sembawang planned to import 325 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas for 22 years through a 640 km pipeline from West Natuna to Singapore.The West Natuna field is partly owned by Conoco, a subsidiary of EI Du Pont de Nemours and Co.

Mannesmann Mobilfunk announces price cuts: Mannesmann Mobilfunk, the telecommunications arm of Mannesmann AG, said on Monday it will cut by 30 per cent prices for business users of its D2 German mobile phone network and introduce local tariffs and discounts for frequent callers. Mobilfunk said in an obligatory statement that lower tariffs for local calls would be introduced on September 28, while discounts for business users and high volume callers will apply from August 31. Mannesmann Mobilfunk said its D2 Network had 4.6 million users at the end of June. The company also said it planned to invest a total of 800 million marks this year in the development projects.

Ford agrees to buy Cosworth Racing from Audi: US Car giant Ford Motor Co said on Monday it had agreed in Principle to buy the Cosworth Racing engine division of Cosworth Engineering from Audi AG, the upmarket car subsidiary of VolkswagenAG. Audi itself reached full agreement on Sunday to buy the Cosworth engine unit from British engineering group Vickers Plc for 117 million pounds ($190.8 million). Ford said in a statement that Cosworth Racing has worked together very closely with Ford for more than 30 years, while the sale will allow Audi to focus fully on the engineering development, casting and manufacturing capabilities of Cosworth, the report added.

Coca-Cola Beverages makes stock market debut: Shares in Coca-Cola Beverages, the European soft bottling operation of Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd of Australia, started trading on the London Stock Exchange at 184 pence on Monday. In June the company indicated a range of 125 pence to 160pence for the flotation. The shares traded at a premium to the price set by Coca Cola Amatil Ltd of 160 pence for the book building exercise run by Warburg Dillon Reed. At 160 pence per share the company is valued at 1.7 billion pounds. In a statement issued to the stock exchange the group said the offer of142.7 million shares, or 13.4 percent of the company, to institutional shareholders was 13 Times subscribed.

Yunsa to meet 98 sales target: Turkey's leading wool yarn producer Yunsa expects to achieve its 1998 turnover target of 24 trillion lira ($88.88 million) despite increasing competition from Asian producers, a senior official said. "We will meet our 24 trillion lira turnover, $45 million exports and seven million metres output targets this year," Yakup Gungor, general manager of the company, said. Gungor complained about illegal inflow of "sub-standard"yarns to Turkey from Asian countries via the Iraqi border.

Gallaher Group plans 500 mln mark bond: Britain's largest cigarette maker Gallaher Group Plc is planning to launch a 500 million mark bond this week, joint lead managers HSBC Trinkaus and Goldman Sachs said on Monday. The issue will be guaranteed by Gallaher Ltd, rated BAA2 by Moody's Investor Services and BBB+ by Standard and Poor's.

Volkswagen aims to sell 16,000 Golfs byend-98: Volkswagen Group Japan KK, the Japanese import-distribution unit of Volkswagen AG said on Monday it was aiming to sell 16,000 newly redesigned Volkswagen Golfs by the end of December. The models go on sale on August 24 in Japan and will have dual airbags and side airbags as standard equipment, it said. Anti-lock brakes are also standard. Prices will start at 2.5 million yen, it said.

Pechiney, Century quit CVG Venezuela consortium: One of the consortia preparing to bid for Venezuela's state-owned CVG Aluminium has lost two members, a statement from the consortium leader, UK based Billiton Plc said on Monday. Billiton said France's Aluminium Pechiney and Century Aluminum have pulled out of the grouping but stressed that it and its local partner Sural are proceeding with their preparations. The other consortium in the race is led by international financier George Soros and includes Kaiser Aluminium Corp, and Korea's Daewoo.

HAL sells Van der Moolen shares: Merchant banks ABN AMRORothschild and Goldman Sachs said on Monday they had been appointed joint global coordinator and bookrunner in the sale of 2.5 million shares in securities brokerage Van der Moolen Holding NV now held by HAL Investments BV. The secondary offering will open today and is expected to close on July 15, 1430 GMT, but subscriptions may be closed earlier.

German shares inch higher as Japanese PM resigns: German shares inched higher on Monday after the resignation of Japan's prime minister sparked hopes the pace of reform in the world's second-largest economy would accelerate. By 0743 GMT, the benchmark DAX index had risen 37.75 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 6020.17. The electronically traded Xetra DAX rose 0.27 per cent to 6,017.42.