IN BRIEF

Nervous Debenhams cuts prices up to 25%

LONDON: British department stores group Debenhams is cutting prices by up to 25 per cent, in a sign retailers are increasingly nervous about the outlook for consumer spending.

Debenhams said yesterday it was lowering prices on "tens of thousands" of goods now in a bid to attract wary shoppers, rather than waiting to use discounting as a way of clearing stock at the end of the season.

Foreign takeovers of UK firms slump in Q2

LONDON: Foreign takeovers of British companies slumped in the second quarter of 2010 to their lowest in a year, falling to £2.3 billion in the second quarter from £14.8 billion in the first three months of the year, official data showed yesterday. The Office for National Statistics said that by contrast, takeovers by British companies rose over the quarter, though volumes for all mergers and acquisitions activity remain well below levels before the financial crisis.

Acerinox sees stainless steel demand recovery

ROME: Currently sluggish global demand for stainless steel is expected to recover in the last quarter of 2010, the chief executive of Acerinox, the world's largest stainless steel maker, said yesterday. Demand has been depressed in the third quarter by concerns about the weak economy in Greece and other European countries as well as by summer holidays, Bernardo Velazquez said on the sidelines of Metal Bulletin's international conference on stainless steel.

S Leone doubles profit share in diamond mining to 60%

FREETOWN: Sierra Leone's government said Monday it has revised its agreement with diamond miner Koidu Holdings, doubling its share in profits to 60 per cent as part of a broad review of mining accords. "The agreement has put us on a stronger footing as Koidu Holdings was having 70 per cent of the share of benefits while the government had only 30 per cent," Mining Minister Alpha Kanu said. "But the new agreement will allow the government to realise a 60 per cent share of all net benefits."

Russia favoured as minerals rail route

ULAN BATOR: Linking Mongolia's desert mines with foreign clients will require billions of dollars of investment over a decade and some investors fear suspicion of China, rather than pure economic logic, is shaping its plans. But analysts say the country's dependence on China worries policy makers.

Agencies