IN BRIEF

M'sia MP claims Petronas big oil find

KUALA LUMPUR: Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah yesterday claimed he was told that the national oil company, Petronas, has made a "very big discovery of an oil field, probably the biggest in the world". This discovery, he asserted, meant that Petronas would have a very good future. However, the founding chairman of Petronas declined to go into details. "I was told ... no announcement (was) made (about) a very big discovery of oil. I was told there was a big discovery ... which could depress the oil price. "I was also told it is the biggest oil field or oil well (not only) in this part of world but also in any part of the world ... I cannot disclose the (location) ... I cannot tell you," he said when asked repeatedly about the discovery, which he mentioned in his talk titled. He also did not identify who had told him of the developments in Petronas. Petronas in a brief statement, denied any such discovery. "Petronas would like to clarify that it has not made any such discovery and any statement alluding to such a discovery is not true," Petronas said.

China monetary move won't crimp metals

LONDON: Monetary tightening in China, the world's largest metals user, will have little impact on consumption and the country will continue to drive metals demand for years, David Wilson of Societe Generale said on Friday. "We really believe it (tightening) is not an issue in terms of metals consumption. Last year ... that huge surge in bank lending, a lot of it wasn't spent," said Wilson, speaking at the 2nd Annual Euro Nickel Conference in London. "It means tightening now will have very little impact in terms of corporate behaviour."

Deutsche Bank China head to join ICBC

SHANGHAI/BEIJING: Lee Zhang, China head of Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's top lender, is set to take a senior role at Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, according to people familiar with the matter. The sources said the appointment is expected to receive final government approval in the next few weeks, part of Beijing's plan to attract influential Chinese away from leading Western firms to drive expansion inside major state-owned enterprises. Zhang has been in talks for several months with senior Chinese government officials and the management of ICBC.

S'pore Keppel's Azerbaijan shipyard bid

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Keppel Corp, the world's largest builder of offshore oil rigs, will jointly build and operate a shipbuilding and repair yard in Azerbaijan, the firm said on Friday. Keppel will develop the shipyard in Baku together with state oil firm SOCAR and the Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC) over the next two to three years, with investment of US$386 million. Keppel has a 10 per cent stake in the venture, versus 65 per cent for SOCAR and 25 per cent for AIC, and an option to acquire another 10 per cent in the next three years. Keppel will operate the yard, which will make tankers and support vessels and help renew SOCAR's fleet.

India hikes rates a quarter point

MUMBAI: India's central bank has unexpectedly hiked key interest rates a quarter of a percentage point, as the bank tries to cool high inflation amid a faster-than-expected economic rebound. The bank raised the benchmark repo rate at which the central bank makes short-term loans to commercial banks to five per cent and raised the reverse repurchase rate the rate at which it borrows from commercial banks to 3.5 per cent, with immediate effect. "These measures should anchor inflationary expectations and contain inflation going forward," the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement after trading hours Friday. "As liquidity in the banking system will remain adequate, credit expansion for sustaining the recovery will not be affected."

M'sia central bank reserves at RM331.7b

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia's international reserves amounted to RM331.7 billion as of March 15. In a statement on Friday, the central bank said the reserves position was sufficient to finance 9.2 months of retained imports and 4.3 times the short-term external debts. Its assets stood at RM364.524 billion. Apart from the international reserves, other assets included Malaysian government papers (RM2.858 billion), deposits with financial institutions (RM10.379 billion), loans and advances (RM12.416 billion) and other assets (RM7.190 billion). Agencies