Prudential will pay $25 billion in cash and $10.5 billion in stock and other securities for AIA Group Ltd., the London- based insurer said in a statement today. Credit Suisse Group AG, JPMorgan Cazenove and HSBC Holdings Plc agreed to underwrite in full a $20 billion rights offer to finance the acquisition. The insurer will also sell about $5 billion of senior debt.
Prudential Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam is trying to boost the insurers sales in Asia as growth in the U.K declines. By acquiring AIA, - - - - >

Stamp duty on sales of more than HK$20 million ($2.6 million) will rise to 4.25 percent from 3.75 percent from April 1, Financial Secretary John Tsang said today in his budget speech, citing the increased risk of a property bubble.
For people buying their own homes “there might be some impact, but it shouldnt be that big,” said Buggle Lau, chief property analyst at realty company Midland Holdings Ltd. “For speculators, the cost of speculation increases, so they may shift their target to the lower end of - - - - >

The shares closed 2 percent higher after the developer paid HK$3.37 billion ($434 million) for the site in the eastern Tseung Kwan O district. The company raised HK$4.2 billion in a weekend apartment sale that attracted 120,000 prospective buyers in the city of 7 million.
The land auction and the weekend sale fanned speculation a bubble is forming in Hong Kongs housing market, where home prices surged 29 percent in 2009 as low interest rates and an increase in buying by mainland Chinese stoked demand. Norman Chan, - - - - >

Glaxo knew Avandia may cause heart damage several years before a study documented the risk and the company pressed doctors to retract warnings about side effects, according to the report issued Feb. 20 by Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley. Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Grassley, the committees ranking Republican, say they want to know why the FDA has kept the medicine on pharmacy shelves.
The stock declined for a second straight day on concern about the safety of a Glaxo drug. U.S. regulators - - - - >

The 52-year-old self-made entrepreneur, who built his mobile-phone company from scratch into Indias largest wireless operator with a market value of $23 billion, has failed twice to take over South Africas MTN Group Ltd. Mittal is seeking assets in Africa as an increasingly crowded market at home brings him call rates of less than half a U.S. cent a minute. He cant afford to fail a third time, investors said.
“The credibility of Mittal will be at stake this time; your ability to close deals, your killer - - - - >

Thats what investment bankers such as Raj Balakrishnan, who heads the Indian mergers and acquisitions business at Bank of America Corp.s Merrill Lynch, are counting on. A thawing of the credit markets and rebounding stock markets are encouraging companies to look overseas for growth, he said.
“With financing markets having reopened, people are looking out again,” Balakrishnan said in an interview. “A number of companies are going out and raising equities and are building a war chest they can deploy at an appropriate time.” - - - - >

Istanbul-based Efes, one of the worlds largest independent brewers, has received approaches for all its beer operations, and separately for its Russian division, Alejandro Jimenez, president of Efes Beer Group, said in an interview.
“You would expect all the big players to look at us, but frankly we are not ready for that — thats what were telling them,” Jimenez said in the companys Istanbul headquarters. “Its not an issue of whether we have to do it or not, its an issue of whether we want to. - - - - >

The average cost of a home in the capital jumped 5 percent to 427,987 pounds ($671,000), the most since records began in 2002, the owner of the U.K.s biggest property Web site said in a statement today. Average asking prices in England and Wales increased by 3.2 percent, the most since April 2007.
A small apartment in Londons Pimlico district received “astronomical” interest from buyers, real-estate agent James Gubbins said in an interview. The Bank of England said in its quarterly economic forecasts this month that the - - - - >

“I took these pictures to try to impress upon these people the massive amount of oversupply,” said Rodman, 63, president of Global Distressed Solutions LLC, which advises private equity and hedge funds on Chinese property and banking. Rodman figures about half of the citys commercial space is vacant, more than was leased in Germanys five biggest office markets in 2009.
Beijings office vacancy rate of 22.4 percent in the third quarter of last year was the ninth-highest of 103 markets tracked by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., - - - - >

The Rochester, New York-based company ended its International Olympic Committee sponsorship with the 2008 Beijing Games, as did fellow global partners Johnson & Johnson, Manulife Financial Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd.
With the Winter Games about to start in Vancouver, corporations that long clamored to link their brands with the Olympic rings are looking elsewhere amid a battered economy and emerging marketing alternatives. The IOC, which tripled revenue from global sponsorships to $866 million from 1993 to 2008, hasnt been able to replace three of the four - - - - >