COMPANIES

Macy's Inc would see only minimal impact from a purchase of bankrupt General Growth Properties Inc by its larger rival, Simon Property Group Inc, said Terry Lundgren, chief executive officer of the department store chain.

It's enough to make a mining executive grit his teeth or his kids to give him the silent treatment.

Swiss food giant Nestle is more likely to sell its 30 percent stake in the world's biggest cosmetics group L'Oreal rather than attempt a takeover with limited strategic logic.

Daihatsu Motor Co, a unit of Toyota Motor Corp, said on Thursday it would recall more than 274,000 Hijet and Atrai wagon models in Japan to fix a loose knuckle joint in the front wheels.

The U.S. Treasury's decision against a bankruptcy restructuring for GMAC may have increased taxpayer bailout costs for the auto finance company and made it less viable, an oversight group said on Thursday.

They build the skyscrapers and lay the highways, mind the city children, sew the clothes and tend the shops, but China's army of migrant laborers are still fundamentally aliens in the country's bustling urban centers.

General Motors Co will pay back roughly $8 billion in debt to the United States and Canada before June and could go public in a way that would allow taxpayers to make a profit on the bailout, Chief Executive Ed Whitacre said on Wednesday.

New home prices in Canada kept climbing in January, rising 0.4 percent from the previous month as expected, according to Statistics Canada on Thursday.

Chrysler hired a Volkswagen executive to lead the reintroduction of its Fiat brand in North America -- a brand that represents the core of the automaker's efforts to bring out fuel-efficient small cars.

U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed.

Major shareholders in Prudential are warming to the British insurer's $35.5 billion bid for AIG's Asian business following meetings with chief executive Tidjane Thiam.

A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd, the U.S. Renewable Energy Group and American Nevada Group said they would jointly develop a production and assembly plant in Nevada.

Russia is considering inviting India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp to develop oil and gas fields in Russia ahead of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India.

U.S. bank JPMorgan has agreed to set up an investment banking venture with China's First Capital Securities this year.

The South Korean bourse on Thursday approved an estimated $4 billion IPO by leading life insurer Samsung Life Insurance, paving the way for what is likely to be the country's biggest share float in May.

Taiwan will further scrutinize American International Group's stalled $2.2 billion sale of its Nan Shan Life unit, and may decide on its fate before the end of June.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) may file an application with the U.S. securities regulator for an initial public offering.

India has adjusted its export tax on iron ore several times over the last two years as the government tries to contain inflation and meet demand from domestic industries.

India's export taxes on iron ore and plans to ramp up supplies to domestic steel mills will cut shipments to key buyer China in the long term, and aid miners wrangling for a steep hike in term prices, if not scrap them.

The apparent loss this week of a U.S. in-flight refueling tanker contract worth up to $50 billion will not affect EADS's finances, the European aerospace group's chief executive said on Thursday.

Airlines are recovering strongly from the crisis, as passengers, freight and pricing power return, the airline industry association IATA said on Thursday, halving its forecast for a 2010 loss.

Toyota Motor said on Thursday it has handed over to a U.S. congressional committee a letter sent to its management by a splinter union in 2006 seeking reforms to improve safety after a recall crisis at the time.

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the world's richest person, knocking Microsoft founder Bill Gates into second spot, as the wealth of the world's billionaires grew by 50 percent over the last year, Forbes magazine said on Wednesday.

Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has stopped gasoline sales to Iran, oil traders said on Wednesday, the latest addition to a growing list of firms that have halted supplies under threat of future U.S. sanctions.

Six companies are expected to make binding offers for storied Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by a newly set March 19 deadline.

A study paid for by Boeing Co found that a Boeing-built aerial tanker would create 10 times as many new U.S. jobs as the now-withdrawn plan by Northrop Grumman Corp and EADS .

U.S. private equity firm Apollo Management LP has agreed to buy Citigroup's real estate investment division, Bloomberg said, citing a person with knowledge of the deal.

Comparing medical treatments to find the best and the cheapest may be a pillar of U.S. healthcare reform efforts, but very little such research is being done, according to a report published on Tuesday.

Venezuela's deepening electricity crisis may drag on the economy for several years, dashing government hopes for GDP growth, slashing fuel exports from the OPEC country, and ushering in lengthy rationing.