INVESTMENT

British private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd is improving results at EMI, but said it might have paid too much money for the debt-laden home of the Beatles and Coldplay.

France's BNP Paribas and Belgian insurer Fortis will take a majority stake in the non-life insurance unit of Italy's UBI Banca, the buyers announced on Thursday.

AT&T Inc expects sales to business customers to stay flat for a while, although growth may return in the second half of 2010, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Thursday.

The head of No. 3 U.S. mobile service Sprint Nextel Corp said on Thursday that it is fair for the U.S. government to ask whether handset exclusivity deals should have time limits.

Crexus Investment Corp shares fell 4 percent in their debut Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ladder Capital Realty Finance Inc, a prospective real estate investment trust, set the terms on Thursday for its planned $400 million initial public offering.

The head of No. 3 U.S. mobile service Sprint Nextel Corp said on Thursday that it is fair for the U.S. government to ask whether handset exclusivity deals should have time limits.

Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC) priced the Hong Kong portion of its initial public offering at the lower end of an indicated range, sources said on Thursday, as the IPO's size and sector appeared to have dampened demand for the construction and engineering company.

The private equity arm of Standard Chartered is set to invest in a number of South Korean companies in the next 18 months as it sees good potential for minority stake purchases in the environment industry.

Web start-up companies at this year's Tech Crunch conference face a financial climate that has dried up venture capital, forcing them to turn to friends, family and foundations.

Private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Thomas H. Lee Partners, and Providence Equity have submitted bids for Cox Enterprises' Travel Channel, a source familiar with the matter said.

Goldman Sachs downgraded Medco Health Solutions to neutral from buy on valuation and said anticipation over a potential captive pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) acquisition has been adding support to the company's shares.

U.S. stock index futures rose slightly on Thursday, edging toward a fourth straight positive session, as investors awaited key data on the labor and housing markets.

Ratcheting up pressure on the largest U.S. bank, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed five current or former Bank of America Corp directors to learn what they knew about Merrill Lynch & Co's problems as the companies prepared to merge.

The government will have another month to seek an indictment against or reach a settlement with a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc programmer accused of stealing trade secrets.

The founders of Skype are suing its owner eBay Inc and the investor group that has agreed to buy the Internet telephone service, alleging theft of technology, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Citigroup Inc plans to pay back $20 billion it owes the government when the bank sees more concrete signs of recovery, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on Wednesday.

A weak U.S. labor market led to bigger bank writedowns of credit card debt in August as a record-high jobless rate left consumers struggling to pay their bills.

Commercial mortgage backed securities got a lift on Wednesday from new U.S. Internal Revenue Service rules that make it easier to modify securitized mortgages without tax penalties.

U.S. stocks rose 1 percent on Wednesday, helped by weakness in the dollar and data showing a rise in industrial output.

Most of the U.S. commercial real estate industry is expected to remain in recession through 2011 with an industry-wide recovery not expected to begin until 2012, according to a quarterly survey commissioned by PricewaterhouseCoopers.