A roundup of today's other stories in brief.
Waterford's €250m loan to refinance debt
Troubled luxury goods group Waterford Wedgwood has taken out new loans for a total of €250 million to refinance its existing debt and pay for its latest restructuring programme.
The new contracts come only three weeks after the group said it replaced all of its banking arrangements with a $250 million (€209 million) facility with a syndicate of institutions led by Bank of America and GE.
The new loans include an asset-based €200 million revolving credit facility with Bank of America and a separate $60 million facility with Banc of America Securities.
Dell advances stock cash-in date
Dell has moved forward the date employees will be able to cash in "out of the money" stock options awarded as part of their compensation plans - a move that should boost the company's bottom line in 2007.
Dell is the latest Silicon Valley company to move up the "vesting" date on which employees can cash in stock options whose value is greater than $30.75 (€25.30), the stock's closing price on Thursday, January 5th.
The move will reduce the cost of accounting for options awarded as part of employee compensation plans. Under accounting rules that came into effect in July, companies are required to account for unvested options as an expense.
Petrel forms joint oil venture in Iraq
Exploration company Petrel Resources has formed a joint venture with an Iraqi contractor for the development of its Iraqi oil contract. Petrel was awarded the contract for the Subba & Luhais oil field in September. Under the terms of the new deal with Makman Oil & Gas, the two companies will own equal parts of the joint venture.
NatWest faces lawsuit in US
Britain's National Westminster Bank is being sued for damages in a US court by families of people killed in terrorist attacks in Israel, for allegedly channelling money to terrorists.
The suit, filed in a federal court in Brooklyn, highlights the official view in Washington of a UK-based Palestinian charity, the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, known as Interpal, which was designated by US president George W. Bush in 2003 as a terrorist entity that "supports Hamas". - (Financial Times service)
HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland
A report in yesterday's editions stated that British banking giant HBOS owned Royal Bank of Scotland (Ireland). In fact, HBOS owns Bank of Scotland (Ireland).
Royal Bank of Scotland is a separate institution which owns the Ulster Bank Group in Ireland, comprising Ulster Bank and First Active. It also owns Lombard, which operates here.
China may change currency policy
China's foreign exchange regulator raised more questions about a possible change in its strategy for managing the country's burgeoning foreign currency reserves.
Buried in an announcement about the agency's objectives for 2006, the state administration for foreign exchange said it wanted to "optimise the currency and asset structure" of the country's foreign exchange reserves.
The statement alarmed some economists, as the spectre of Asia's central banks diversifying away from the dollar has long threatened a drop in the value of the US currency.
