COMPANIES

Tata Motors Ltd , India's largest vehicles maker, on Sunday announced the launch in India of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, the marquee brands it bought from Ford Motors last year.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis is in talks to buy parts of Irish peer Elan , including its flagship multiple sclerosis products and its Alzheimer's disease pipeline, the Sunday Times said.

Volkswagen said it had not presented Porsche with an ultimatum to accept its layout for a merger of the two carmakers, denying a media report and accusations from Porsche.

The potential buyer of General Motors Corp's Hummer division will begin formal talks with Chinese regulators on Monday in an effort to win approval for its acquisition, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Sanofi-Aventis's diabetes drug Lantus may increase the risk of cancer, according to European studies involving some 300,000 insulin-treated patients, prompting a call from experts for more research.

As hard-hit Western banks and hedge funds scramble to sell their Asian loans and bonds, one newcomer expects to pick up these choice assets at rarely seen discounts.

Signs that home prices may have bottomed have stirred hope on Wall Street that the economy is on the mend, yet tight credit and a new foreclosure wave cast doubt on any looming housing revival.

General Electric Co plans to open a research center in the economically ailing U.S. state of Michigan, where it will develop new manufacturing technologies.

The end of the decline in real estate is nowhere near, and yet U.S. banks may feel it shrewd to hold onto troubled loans in the sector rather than sell them or take losses.

Boeing Co , the world's No.2 plane-maker, suffered another heavy blow to its Dreamliner project on Friday when a major customer, Australia's Qantas Airways , scrapped and deferred orders for 30 new planes.

Daimler is not interested in buying a stake in financially troubled automotive holding Porsche SE, Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told German weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Slumping demand drove Tata Motors into its first annual loss in eight years and India's top vehicle maker warned of more job cuts and plant shutdowns at the loss-making Jaguar and Land Rover unit.

Opportunistic property investor NewRiver Retail has suspended plans for a 250 million pound ($406.3 million) listing on London's Alternative Investment Market stock exchange, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.

Canadian grain-handling company Viterra Inc said it will raise C$300 million ($261.5 million) through a senior-note offering and plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, that could include acquisitions.

The new bosses at Sanofi-Aventis and GlaxoSmithKline are playing a cautious acquisition game, 13 and seven months respectively after taking control of the two big European drugmakers.

Canada's Emera Inc said it agreed to buy Irving Oil's interests in Bayside Power LP, located in New Brunswick, to complement its operations in the region.

Possible plans by Volkswagen to cooperate with Suzuki Motor raised an enthusiastic response among investors on Friday, but traders said the main focus at VW remained firmly on Qatar.

Canada's Magma Energy Corp, a geothermal power company active in the western United States and South America, has raised C$100 million ($87 million) in an initial public offering taken up by investors around the world, sources close to the deal told Reuters.

Global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) plunged by more than half in the second quarter to $402 billion, but the green shoots of economic recovery may soon kick-start fee revenue from an eleven-year low.

Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor, wants speedy reforms at the world's biggest carmaker but many want him out of the fast lane.

Citigroup has been ordered by Japanese regulators to stop marketing financial products at its retail bank for a month, a slap that is unlikely to squeeze revenue but will further tarnish the U.S. bank's reputation in a key market.

KB Home, the No. 5 U.S. homebuilder, posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Friday, but said it saw signs that negative trends in the housing market were moderating.

German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said in a newspaper interview on Friday that discussions about troubled car maker Opel remained open but that a solution needed to be found fast.

KB Home, the No. 5 U.S. homebuilder, posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Friday, but said it saw signs that negative trends in the housing market were moderating.

Micron Technology Inc reported lower-than-expected revenues as part of its 10th straight quarterly loss and shares of the top U.S. maker of memory chips slid more than 4 percent.

General Motors Corp needs to exit from bankruptcy quickly in order to avoid a fatal blow to many of its suppliers and the loss of thousands of jobs, Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said in a court filing on Thursday.

British Airways on announced on Thursday that 800 staff members have agreed to work up to one month for no pay in order to save company costs.

Auto parts supplier Lear Corp is preparing to file for bankruptcy as soon as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

French carmaker Renault has decided to replace a French executive vice president at Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ, in which it owns a 25 percent stake.