Olivetti not eyeing Telecom Italia: Olivetti is not mulling a takeover of Telecom Italia, Italian communications ministry undersecretary Michele Lauria said. "As for an Olivetti takeover of Telecom I believe I can rule out it is coming," Lauria told Reuters Television Italia. Olivetti shares slid on Tuesday on talk the group could be considering a move on Telecom Italia.

KEPCO buys Feb LSWR at $11.90 bn from Mitsui: South Korea's state-owned power supplier Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) has awarded its tender to buy low sulphur waxy residue (LSWR) fixed price of $11.90 per barrel to Mitsui Corp., a KEPCO official said on Tuesday. The tender, which closes today, called for the delivery of 500,000 barrels of mixed cracked LSWR between February 11-15 to Ulsan, the official said. In its last tender, KEPCO bought 400,000 barrels of LSWR from Dutch trader Vitol at a $13.93 premium to the Pertamina formula for November 13-17 delivery.

JIT raises S$27 m in share placement: Electronics contract manufacturer JIT Holdings Ltd said that it has raised about Singapore $27 million in its placement of 22.5 million new shares."The private placement will increase the consolidated net asset value per share of the company from approximately S$0.29 as at statement. Due to good demand for the new shares, 10 million existing shares were also placed out at the placement price, which represented a discount of about five percent to the closing price. From the net proceeds, the purchase of new equipment capacity in China and Singapore, it said. About S$8 million would be used for the purchase of new equipment and the development of its production facility in Hungary, JIT said.

Novartis sees no need to merge: WSJ: Novartis sees no need to join the wave of mergers and acquisitions sweeping the pharmaceutical sector, but is keeping its options open, chief executive Daniel Vasella was quoted as saying. "I don't feel that any of the recent transactions has changed our competitive situation in such a way that we should feel more threatened than before," he told the Wall Street Journal Europe. "Internal growth is key, and we need to perform while keeping our eyes open for opportunities." Vasella, who will become chairman as well as CEO when Alex Krauer retires the financial and organisational resources it needed to join the consolidation wave if it so chose. "The question of internal growth versus external growth was and is on the table," he told the paper.

HBG German unit writes down DM 150 m: Construction firm Hollandsche Beton Groep NV (HBG) said it's 95-per cent owned German unit Wayss & Freytag had taken an additional write-down of 150 million German marks on its project development portfolio in 1998. ``This concerns the portfolio that was built up before Wayss & Freytag was acquired by HBG on January 1, 1997,'' HBG said in a statement. The amount will be deducted as goodwill from the company's assets, HBG added. HBG said it was not satisfied with information received before the buy of Wayss & Freytag from the seller part of the German firm, AGIV . The company added it was preparing a bid for the remaining five per cent of shares in Wayss & Freytag still in the hands of third parties, valuing the amount involved at around 24 million German marks.

Enron invests $243 m in Korea gas venture: Houston-based Enron Corp put up $243 million as its stake with South Korea's SK Corp to distribute natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas in South Korea, Enron said. The total capitalisation of the venture will be just under $500 million with Enron contributing $243 million, Enron spokesman John Ambler said. The money was handed over when the documents for the deal were signed on Wednesday, he said. SK's interest in six local gas distribution companies will be pulled into the joint venture. ``This joint venture will be the largest gas distributor in Korea,'' he said. SK has a 21 per cent share of the local natural gas market and a 50 per cent share of the LPG market. ``The Korean market has a good partner on this joint venture,'' Ambler said. ``The Korean government strongly supports natural gas and as the economy recovers it provides one of the best avenues participate in the East Asian market,'' he said. The customers will be various residential andcommercial users in Korea, he said.