Headlines

Sanlu Group Co., the dairy company at the center of China's tainted-milk scandal, was auctioned off Wednesday for 616.5 million yuan ($90.1 million) after being declared bankrupt last month, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Sanlu was bought by Beijing-based dairy company Sanyuan Foods Co. during the auction at the Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang, the northern Chinese city where Sanlu was based, Xinhua said. Sanlu was the first of 22 Chinese dairies whose products were found to contain high levels of the industrial chemical melamine.

The world waited with bated breath on Thursday for a beefed-up China stimulus that did not come, but the non-news should generate more a sense of relief than disappointment, Reuters reported. Relief that Beijing thinks its policies are hitting the mark, that the economy is getting back on its feet--and that it has the fiscal power to give an extra push, though only if needed.

President Hugo Chavez ordered the expropriation of a rice-processing plant in Venezuela owned by American food giant Cargill Inc. on Wednesday because the company allegedly was not distributing rice at prices imposed by the government, the Associated Press reported. The socialist leader also threatened to nationalize Venezuela's largest food producer, Empresas Polar, amid rising tension between his government and privately owned food producers that authorities accuse of sidestepping price controls aimed at stemming high inflation.

German men's clothing retailer Pohland has filed for insolvency after its banks cancelled outstanding credit lines, the company said on Tuesday. The company added four outlets last year, adding costs just as the global economic crisis deepened. The business will continue operating while its management works on a restructuring plan. The company, founded in 1958, generated sales of €44.5 million ($56.28 million) last year. It has 12 outlets with 343 employees. Last month, owner Aurelius said Pohland's financing was no longer secured after sales had dropped in recent months.

General Motors' Saab brand has received interest from several potential bidders including China's Geely Automobile and Dongfeng Motor Group, sources with direct knowledge of the sales process said on Tuesday. GM has not yet begun an official auction for the Swedish brand but expects to have preliminary financials for Saab ready in a few weeks, according to the people who were not authorized to discuss the sale process.

General Motors' German unit Opel could slash 3,500 jobs as part of a plan to cut costs and relaunch as an independent company, GM Europe head Carl-Peter Forster told Bild newspaper. Staff reductions would hopefully not exceed that figure at Opel, which employs around 25,000 workers in Germany, he told the daily on Wednesday. To survive, Opel needs around €3.3 billion ($4.17 billion) in state aid from European governments to save jobs and keep plants open, the company has said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao may announce new stimulus measures tomorrow, adding to a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) spending plan as the government tries to revive growth in the world’s third-biggest economy, Bloomberg reported. Wen will announce “a new stimulus package” in his annual address to the nation’s legislature, former statistics bureau head Li Deshui told reporters in Beijing.

Volvo AB, which is cutting jobs and reported a fourth-quarter loss, scrapped a proposal to lift bonuses for managers after the plan was opposed by people including Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Bloomberg reported. Gothenburg-based Volvo, the second-largest maker of heavy trucks, will refrain from raising the bonus ceiling for 250 top managers to 60 percent of their salary from 50 percent, it said in a statement today. Volvo also won’t increase the number of shares allocated to a long-term executive incentive plan.

Edward Harman, the New Zealand man behind a string of failed investments involving a coterie of well-known business people, has been bankrupted as concerns emerge over the liquidation of his companies, The National Business Review reported. Mr Harman was declared bankrupt last week in the High Court at Auckland, as the result of a creditor’s petition. He is the director of five companies placed into voluntary liquidation last July: Fairthorne Investments, Fairthorne Trading, Fairthorne Ventures, Paeroa Investments and Wake Investments.

The New Zealand government says it had no reason to believe that Mascot Finance would fail when it granted it a taxpayer-funded deposit guarantee in January, The Press reported. Questions over whether the Crown should have given Mascot Finance a guarantee arose after if it went into receivership seven weeks after getting a guarantee. How big the bill to the taxpayer will be from Mascot is unclear. Receivers Deloitte say it is too early to say whether Mascot's assets outweigh its liabilities.