Global groups line up for Mexican airport tender: Six consortia paid a 100-million peso deposit to participate in the upcoming tender of operations at Mexico's southeast airports, the government's privatisation coordinator said. Jorge Silberstein told Reuters that the groups paid the deposit by the Friday deadline to continue to the next stage in the process for the first of four regional packages whose airport operations are slated to be privatised. An original list of about 50 companies expressed interest in the tender.

Top Lazard executive tohead CSFB Europe: Credit Suisse First Boston said it has recruited John Nelson, currently vice chairman of British investment bank Lazard Brothers, to become chairman of its European operations. CSFB said Nelson, aged 51, will be the senior executive for CSFB in Europe and will report to Allen D Wheat, CSFB's chief executive. He succeeds David Mulford, who was named chairman, international, in January. Nelson joined Lazards in 1986 after spending 15 years at Kleinwort Benson.

Thomson-CSF, Aerospatiale near missile deal: Thomson-CSF and Aerospatiale are close to concluding a deal to link up their missiles activities and could announce an agreement this month, the La Tribune newspaper said on Monday. The deal would combine France's two missiles camps -- one around Aerospatiale and Lagardere and the other around Thomson-CSF and Alcatel -- as part of a wider European restructuring. The paper said Thomson-CSF confirmed there were negotiations but that there was no agreement yet. "We will not accept asolution which goes against the interests of CSF -- we want to keep the lead in mid-range ground to air systems," the company was quoted as saying. The paper said Thomson-CSF was trying to avoid being diluted in a big European grouping where Matra BAe Dynamics -- the joint venture of British Aerospace and Lagardere -- is emerging as the main company. Aerospatiale and Lagardere's Matra high technology unit arealready in the process of merging.

Ericsson expects 20 per cent growth: Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson said on Monday that the company was charting a new course which would help it to grow by at least 20 per cent per year, faster than the market average. "We are combining our industry-leading position in wireless communications with a strong commitment to IP technologies to aggressively move our business forward. Based on this new direction we intend to grow faster than the overall industry -- I.E. by well over 20 percent a year," it said in a statement.

Moody's to assess Korea'srestructuring: US rating agency Moody's Investors Service will send a delegation early in November to conduct assessments of South Korea's corporate and financial restructuring, a Seoul government official said on Monday. The official, who declined to be named, said Moody's had decided to dispatch an appraisal team to South Korea at the request of finance minister Lee Kyu-sung. During his visit to New York early in October, Lee asked Moody's and another credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's Corp to re-assess the country rating for South Korea, the official said. South Korean officials briefed the two rating agencies on the country's efforts to restore financial and corporate stability through reform programmes. The official said Standard and Poor's had yet to respond to Lee's request. Moody's lowered the country rating for South Korea to Ba1 last December from Baa2. South Korea's sovereign rating was A1 before the foreign exchange crisis hit the country late last year.