June 1 (Bloomberg) -- T-Mobile International AG, Orange SA, TeliaSonera AB and other mobile-phone companies, facing European regulators’ threats to cut wireless roaming charges, agreed to reduce such fees by about 50 percent.
The cuts will result in a ``significant’’ reduction in international call prices for consumers, the companies said in an e-mailed release today. The accord includes Telecom Italia SpA, Telenor ASA, Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA, and other European phone companies are invited to join.
Viviane Reding, the European Union’s top phone regulator, proposed roaming regulation in March because companies haven’t done enough to cut fees. The proposal threatens 10 billion euros ($12.8 billion) in annual sales for companies such as Vodafone Group Plc, TeliaSonera and Spain’s Telefonica SA.
Reding said she plans to enact new rules by the middle of next year.
``Market forces in the mobile industry function and do not need regulatory intervention,’’ T-Mobile Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann said in the release.
The company is ``glad to be part of a comprehensive network operator initiative, which has declared to voluntarily reduce prices significantly.’’
The companies agreed to cap the average wholesale rates they offer each other for providing roaming services at 45 euro cents a minute from October 2006 and 36 cents a minute from October 2007.

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Euro nations more vulnerable than Japan to U.S. slump, says ABN

By Simon Kennedy
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- The dozen nation euro-area economy is almost twice as vulnerable as Japan to a slump in the U.S., according to economists at ABN Amro Holding NV.
In a report released today, ABN Amro’s London-based economist James Carrick devised a ``survivor’’ index of which major economies would be hurt most should an unwinding of global imbalances, such as the record U.S. trade deficit, throttle American consumer spending, the dollar and U.S. stocks.
``If U.S. demand growth and the dollar fell sharply, Japan should cope better than the euro area,’’ Carrick wrote. ``Japan’s domestic recovery seems more entrenched and its economy is more competitive.’’
Within the euro-region economy, Germany and the Netherlands appear most at risk, the report said. France is ``better- placed’’ because consumer demand is stronger there, it said. The U.K. and Norway are at greater risk, according to the index, which is derived from economies’ competitiveness and their reliance on exports.
The conclusions echo a warning last week from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that Europe was threatened more than Japan or the U.S. by a collapse in the global economy provoked by a narrowing of the U.S. trade imbalance.
The U.S. current account deficit last year topped $800 billion for the first time and equaled two-thirds of the world’s trade surpluses.
 

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Chidambaram says Indian economy can sustain 8 percent expansion

By Kartik Goyal
May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the country can sustain an economic growth rate of 8 percent and called for easing legal and bureaucratic hurdles to attract overseas investments.
India today said the economy grew 9.3 percent in the quarter ended March 31, the fastest after China among the 20 biggest economies of the world.
Chidambaram said the decline in stock prices reflect global volatility while the rupee’s rate was market determined.
He said overseas investors are ``waiting’’ to invest in India and said the country must improve its roads, ports and other infrastructure to attract overseas money.

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Heathrow ‘should be phased out’

Heathrow: A “truly great planning catastrophe” Heathrow should be replaced with a new international airport to the east of London, a planning charity claims. The Town and County Planning Association argues 30,000 homes could be built on the “catastrophically” planned west London site instead.
A Thames Estuary hub would stop plane noise over London and further expansion of Heathrow displacing villages.
Lord Soley, who backs a third Heathrow runway, said moving the airport would mean too many job loses for the area.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The more we move investment to the East - the Thames Estuary or wherever - the greater the problems for the west of London.
‘Environmental limits’
“There are 70,000 jobs at Heathrow and another 100,000 dependent on it.” In the planning charity’s paper, Heathrow’s 60-year history was condemned as “a series of minor planning disasters that together make up one of the country’s truly great planning catastrophes.”
It also said the swap should happen over the next century.
But Lord Soley said Heathrow should be looking to match the capabilities of other continental airports over the next 10 to 20 years.
“You can fit a third runway in there - everybody accepts that. The argument is ‘can you do it within the environmental limits laid down’, and the evidence is ‘yes, you can’.
‘Logistically impossible’
“If we don’t, then what we have to do is plan for the decline and closure of Heathrow in the next 10 to 20 years, not 40, and that would be a catastrophe for the west London region and profoundly serious for the rest of Britain.”
The report also said a high-speed rail link from the new site would be an alternative to “environmentally damaging short-haul flights”.
The report’s authors, Tony Hall and Sir Peter Hall, said passengers who fumed at the “long taxiing operations culminating in a take-off queue, or at long periods spent in the four holding areas” might well echo Dr Johnson’s famous remark about a dog walking on its hind legs.
“It’s not that it is done well, but you are surprised to find it is done at all,” wrote Dr Johnson. They also said it would be “logistically impossible” for the airport to be phased out in a short time scale of five or 10 years.
A housing development at Heathrow could be worth more than £6.8bn, they said.

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Saudi Prince Alwaleed allotted Bank of China shares

By Cathy Chan
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the world’s eighth-richest man, was allocated about a fifth of the $2 billion of shares that he wanted from Bank of China’s initial public offering, two people involved in the sale said.
Alwaleed was awarded $390 million of stock from the $9.73 billion IPO in which investor demand exceeded supply by about 17 times, said the people, who declined to be identified because the details are confidential. Alwaleed bought more shares of Beijing-based Bank of China than Hong Kong billionaires, including Li Ka-shing.
``We’re happy that we’ve got a group of well-known global investors,’’ Xiao Gang, chairman of Bank of China, the nation’s No. 2 lender, said in Hong Kong yesterday. ``We’re confident about our share-price performance as the group’s continued operations will create value for our shareholders.’’
Shares of Bank of China rose 15 percent yesterday in their first day of trading in Hong Kong. The advance translates into a one-day gain of about $59 million for Alwaleed, who holds shares in companies ranging from New York-based Citigroup Inc. to Apple Computer Inc.
Xiao declined to comment on the shares sold to Alwaleed. Alwaleed ``secured the highest allocation given to any individual or institution,’’ said Ahmed Halawani, chief executive officer of al-Azizia Commercial Investment Co. Alwaleed is chairman of al-Azizia.
`One of Many’
Alwaleed’s investment probably will be ``one of many’’ in China, the 51-year-old prince said in a May 24 statement. The prince has interests in China through his holdings in Four Seasons Hotels Inc.
Chinese President Hu Jintao met with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud and Alwaleed when he visited Saudi Arabia in April. The kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, wants to develop economic and political ties with China, the No. 2 oil consumer after the U.S.