Business Briefs

Nedbank gets loan for poorJOHANNESBURG – South African bank Nedbank has secured a 40 million euro credit facility from France’s development agency to provide housing loans for low-income households, the bank said yesterday.

Nedbank said in a statement it would borrow the funds from the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) over 12 years at a fixed interest rate, which was not given. “At the current exchange rate, (it) will effectively provide finance for more than 4 000 low-income households,” June Tudhope, managing director of Nedbank home loans, said in a statement.Tudhope said the loans would be structured so that some fees are subsidised and so that interest rates are fixed and capped with affordable monthly repayments.The AFD has been involved in South Africa since the country’s first all-race elections in 1994.China expects ‘balanced trade’ SHANGHAI – China expects its exports and imports to be basically balanced by 2010, the Commerce Ministry said yesterday, projecting total trade by then at US$2,3 trillion.China has often countered foreign criticism over its growing trade gap by saying it expects to eventually bring imports in line with exports by boosting domestic demand and making its currency policies more flexible.Annual growth in total trade is likely to slow from its recent rates of close to 30 per cent to about 10 per cent, said a statement posted on the Commerce Ministry’s Web site.Strong exports have been a major contributor to China’s robust economic growth, projected this year at more than 10 per cent.Exports outpaced imports by US$18,8 billion in August, bringing the total surplus so far this year to US$95,6 billion.Sun International unveils Russia plans JOHANNESBURG – Shares in South Africa’s biggest casino and hotel company Sun International jumped three per cent yesterday after it said it was planning a major casino investment in Russia.Shares in Sun International, which runs South Africa’s Sun City resort, rose to 100 rand by 0757 GMT, outpacing a slightly weaker Johannesburg mid-cap index.The company said late on Tuesday it planned a significant investment to build a casino complex with Russian Belaya Dacha Group near Moscow.The proposed project – which would be Sun International’s first major foray outside Africa – is sited southeast of Moscow.The first phase would consist of some 1000 top-end hotel rooms, a casino, an international convention centre, summer and winter sporting facilities – including Russia’s first PGA-rated championship golf course – residential dachas, and a spa.Google eclipses its rivals once again SAN FRANCISCO – Google’s headline-grabbing acquisition of online video pioneer YouTube represented another page in a script that is becoming depressingly familiar for all the rivals that are continually being beaten to the punch by the Internet’s search leader.Perhaps no Google competitor is more weary of the story line than Yahoo Inc – an Internet icon battling perceptions that it has lost its competitive edge, even as it continues to attract the largest audience on the Web.Google’s US$1,65 billion deal to buy YouTube Inc, announced Monday, is just the latest flexion of the Mountain View, California-based company’s muscle.During the summer, Google formed an advertising alliance with News Corp’s MySpace.com, a social-networking site that is challenging Yahoo as the Internet’s most viewed site.Just as important, Google has continued to widen its lead in the lucrative search market – the main reason investors think the company is worth US$130 billion after just eight years in business.Meanwhile, Yahoo delayed a highly anticipated improvement to its advertising network and missed analysts’ third-quarter revenue targets.Nampa-Reuters-AP-AFP”At the current exchange rate, (it) will effectively provide finance for more than 4 000 low-income households,” June Tudhope, managing director of Nedbank home loans, said in a statement.Tudhope said the loans would be structured so that some fees are subsidised and so that interest rates are fixed and capped with affordable monthly repayments.The AFD has been involved in South Africa since the country’s first all-race elections in 1994.China expects ‘balanced trade’ SHANGHAI – China expects its exports and imports to be basically balanced by 2010, the Commerce Ministry said yesterday, projecting total trade by then at US$2,3 trillion.China has often countered foreign criticism over its growing trade gap by saying it expects to eventually bring imports in line with exports by boosting domestic demand and making its currency policies more flexible.Annual growth in total trade is likely to slow from its recent rates of close to 30 per cent to about 10 per cent, said a statement posted on the Commerce Ministry’s Web site.Strong exports have been a major contributor to China’s robust economic growth, projected this year at more than 10 per cent.Exports outpaced imports by US$18,8 billion in August, bringing the total surplus so far this year to US$95,6 billion.Sun International unveils Russia plans JOHANNESBURG – Shares in South Africa’s biggest casino and hotel company Sun International jumped three per cent yesterday after it said it was planning a major casino investment in Russia.Shares in Sun International, which runs South Africa’s Sun City resort, rose to 100 rand by 0757 GMT, outpacing a slightly weaker Johannesburg mid-cap index.The company said late on Tuesday it planned a significant investment to build a casino complex with Russian Belaya Dacha Group near Moscow.The proposed project – which would be Sun International’s first major foray outside Africa – is sited southeast of Moscow.The first phase would consist of some 1000 top-end hotel rooms, a casino, an international convention centre, summer and winter sporting facilities – including Russia’s first PGA-rated championship golf course – residential dachas, and a spa.Google eclipses its rivals once again SAN FRANCISCO – Google’s headline-grabbing acquisition of online video pioneer YouTube represented another page in a script that is becoming depressingly familiar for all the rivals that are continually being beaten to the punch by the Internet’s search leader.Perhaps no Google competitor is more weary of the story line than Yahoo Inc – an Internet icon battling perceptions that it has lost its competitive edge, even as it continues to attract the largest audience on the Web.Google’s US$1,65 billion deal to buy YouTube Inc, announced Monday, is just the latest flexion of the Mountain View, California-based company’s muscle.During the summer, Google formed an advertising alliance with News Corp’s MySpace.com, a social-networking site that is challenging Yahoo as the Internet’s most viewed site.Just as important, Google has continued to widen its lead in the lucrative search market – the main reason investors think the company is worth US$130 billion after just eight years in business.Meanwhile, Yahoo delayed a highly anticipated improvement to its advertising network and missed analysts’ third-quarter revenue targets.Nampa-Reuters-AP-AFP