INVESTMENT

Unlike many corporate chiefs, Warren Buffett often plays down the prospects of his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc , while trying to keep investors focused on the long term.

Will India do it again? That is the question being asked by investors and bullion market analysts now. After India's surprise buying of 200 tonnes of IMF gold in November last year, now several news agency reports said that India is another potential candidate to buy more gold from the International Monetary Fund when it begins selling 191.3 tonnes of the precious metal.

Switzerland said it would no longer accept untaxed money into its banks as it tries to ease pressure on its $2 trillion offshore banking industry from key trading partners seeking to boost tax revenues.

General Growth Properties Inc unveiled a bankruptcy exit plan bankrolled by Brookfield Asset Management that would split it in two.

The Carlyle Group aims to invest most of its Asia-focused funds on deals in China.

The number of affluent investors worrying about jobs and the political environment rose in February as bipartisan cooperation remains elusive in Washington and the economy struggles with high unemployment.

Citigroup Inc is in advanced talks to sell its $4 billion hedge fund business to SkyBridge Capital LLC, a New York firm that invests in start-up fund managers.

Reports that French oil giant Total is ready to invest $20 billion in Nigerian oil and gas development spread through energy markets in an unlikely bit of positive news for the beleaguered African producer. Total, Europe's third-largest oil company and largest refiner, has its hands full trying to resolve a strike that has paralyzed its refining capacity in France and dampened global oil prices.

Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP will cut the $20 billion debt load of its hotel chain, Hilton Worldwide Inc, by almost $4 billion in a restructuring, according to court documents.

The Obama administration said on Tuesday it is still committed to the Volcker rule to ban risky trading by banks, although Congress looks increasingly unlikely to adopt the rule as proposed.

A number of private equity firms put in second round bids for Dow Chemical's Styron unit a week ago, including buyout firms TPG and Apollo.

U.S. businesses continued to postpone financing new investments in their operations in January, but delinquencies among existing borrowers stabilized and outright defaults fell.

Auto parts maker Federal-Mogul Corp (FDML.O) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, compared with a year-earlier loss, driven by aggressive cost-cutting and improving global auto production.

British private equity firm 3i Group agreed to sell Ambea to rival buyout firm Triton for 850 million euros ($1.16 billion)

A group of about 150 trade union protesters blocked entrances to the Athens stock exchange building on Tuesday but bourse officials said they expected trade to go ahead normally.

Morgan Stanley is in late stage talks to sell its stake in China International Capital Corp to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and TPG Capital for more than $1 billion, according to three sources familiar with the situation.

General Motors Co [GM.UL] said on Monday that Stephen Girsky, special adviser to Chief Executive Ed Whitacre, has been appointed vice chairman in charge of corporate strategy and business development.

Laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc has offered $6 billion to buy Millipore Corp, according to a person familiar with the situation, in a deal that would increase its presence in the manufacture of biotech drugs.

Bank of America Corp won approval of a $150 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the Merrill Lynch & Co merger, though the federal judge who signed off on the accord called it half-baked justice at best.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn plans to nominate himself and three others to the board of Genzyme Corp , which is struggling to recover from a manufacturing crisis that lead to shortages of two of its life-saving drugs and sparked outrage from patients and investors alike.

Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance, Japan's second-largest life insurer, said on Monday it would sell about 1.07 trillion yen ($11.7 billion) worth of shares in the country's biggest initial public offering in more than a decade.