COMPANIES

Suzuki Motor Corp and estranged partner Volkswagen seemed headed for arbitration, after VW refused again to sell its 20 percent stake back to the Japanese carmaker.

Coach Inc., a New York-based designer and marketer of luxury accessories, is planning major forays into China. The company's aim is to make the country its biggest market by 2014.

Hisashi Mori, an ex-vice president of Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp., has been questioned by Japanese prosecutors on a voluntary basis as part of an investigation into an accounting scandal at the 92-year-old firm, media said Saturday.

A light sentence handed down on Friday for a former top UBS private banker who became a U.S. government informant on wealthy American tax cheats ramps up pressure on the Swiss banking industry.

Seven banks that helped MF Global Holdings Ltd. sell bonds were sued by pension funds who said the bonds' offering prospectuses concealed problems that led to the futures brokerage's collapse.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has promoted 261 employees to managing director positions, according to an internal memo sent this week. It is the lowest number since 259 were promoted to similar positions in 2008.

Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay $315 million to settle a class action filed against it on behalf of investors in 18 mortgage-backed securities trusts, according to Reuters.

As much as 300 barrels a day may have leaked from the seeps caused by the company's drilling, says Brazil's environmental protection agency.

Shares of Clearwire Corp. fell as much as 31 percent after the company said it may skip its massive debt payment on Dec.1.

United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) plans to increase 2012 rates by 4.9 percent for ground package shipping, air shipping and, U.S.-origin international shipments, the company announced Friday. New pricing takes effect Jan. 2, 2012.

India expects to unveil a new telecoms policy in January, the country's telecoms secretary R Chandrasekhar said.

Reliance Industries and BP Plc have formed a joint venture India Gas Solutions to source, market and transport natural gas.

India Inc has lost its swagger. Slowing growth, stubbornly high inflation, rising interest rates have dampened investor and corporate sentiment.

Between next Friday and the following Monday, AT&T is selling some of its devices online for just one cent.

Canadian railroads reported 76,106 carloads for the week ended Nov.12, 2011, up 2 percent compared with the same week last year, and 49,461trailers and containers, down 0.4 percent compared with 2010, according to the Association of American Railroads.

The Association of American Railroads reported gains in rail traffic for the week ending Nov.12, 2011, with U.S. railroads originating 299,591 carloads, up 0.5 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 244,972 trailers and containers, up 5.2 percent compared with the same week last year.

H.J. Heinz Co. saw its fiscal second-quarter net income dip 5.7 percent, as organic sales growth in emerging markets could not offset continually weakening sales in North America.

Right now, men are en vogue. They are fashion's new darling. It's true. All one must do is glance around the streets of New York, Paris, Tokyo, or Milan to see that men are taking fashion seriously.

During famed fund manager Bill Miller's 15-year streak of outperforming the S&P 500, he was often held up as proof that stock picking wasn't just dumb luck. It required skill.

Barclays Capital started coverage of several Canadian exploration and production companies, including PetroBakken Energy (PBN.TO: Quote), with a positive stance, saying the industry is well-positioned with low-risk growth and attractive dividend yields.

A former senior UBS banker who helped the U.S. government expand its crackdown on offshore tax evasion was sentenced to five years probation on Friday for advising wealthy Americans on ways to hide their money from U.S. tax authorities.

Frontier Airlines has been named North America's Leading Low-Cost Airline of 2011 by World Travel Awards, an 18-year-old coveted travel awards program that acknowledges excellence in the world's travel and tourism industry.

Shell Oil Company has set a world record in drilling and completing a subsea well 9,627 feet below sea level at its Perdido Development in the Tobago Field 200 miles southwest of Houston.

Automaker Honda unveiled its completely redesigned fourth-generation 2012 CR-V at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The new CR-V will go on-sale at Honda dealerships nationwide Dec. 15.

Suzuki Motor Corp said on Friday that it is planning to buy back up to 20 percent of its own shares held by Volkswagen.

Shares in Swiss bank UBS rose on Friday as investors welcomed its pledge to start paying dividends again, though its plans to trim its scandal-hit investment bank failed to go as far as some had hoped.

A San Jose, California, man faces charges of tax evasion after failing to report $1.3 million in interest income from HSBC Holdings Plc's India unit, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.

Anglo-Dutch publishing and events group Reed Elsevier Plc/NV posted a 1 percent rise in underlying sales for the first nine months of the year and said macroeconomic uncertainty had had only a marginal effect on its results.

Dole Food narrowed its third-quarter loss year-over-year as stronger revenues offset a challenging period seen in its European market.