Dr Reddy’s said the bonus debentures are to be redeemed at the end of 36 months. “The debentures will carry a coupon rate. The total payout would be Rs 520 crore.”

Commenting on the same, GV Prasad, Vice-Chairman and CEO, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, said the payout will be in the form of dividend distribution tax.

On Friday, Starr International (Greenberg’s investment vehicle) issued a filing with the SEC stating that it will sell as many as 10 million shares of Greenberg’s former firm in four blocks of 2.5 million shares. The price tag for the deal comes in at $278 million. The way the deal is structured is known as a variable prepaid forward sale.

This sort of transaction takes place in order to limit exposure to volatility, and that is exactly what Greenberg wants to do; limit his exposure to volatility in AIG’s price. I started to wonder, what kind of volatility could we be looking at with AIG? Yes, the stock plummeted in the past, but it seems to have staged a nice little turnaround, which started in early February. After eclipsing its 10-, 20- and 50-day moving averages, the stock has advanced from the $22 region to as high as $38 earlier this month. What’s more, the shares are perched atop their 10- and 20-week moving averages, so these trendlines could provide support if needed. I am sure that there has to be something that could cause some volatility in the shares going forward.

Lehman filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008, listing more than $600 billion of assets. It quickly sold its biggest units like its core U.S. brokerage and Neuberger Berman wealth management subsidiary, but hundreds of Lehman employees hired by the bankruptcy estate have been managing the company’s long-term investments in real estate and private equity since the bankruptcy.

Lehman’s ability to quickly sell its core assets and then propose an end to its bankruptcy about a year and a half after filing the most complicated case ever was seen as a triumph for the U.S. bankruptcy system.

“Lehman went in and there was real concern whether bankruptcy could handle something like that,” Jack Williams, a bankruptcy law professor at Georgia State University, said on Monday. “(The detractors) were wrong then and they’re wrong now … It works for small, medium and gargantuan businesses.”

Lehman said the reorganization plan, which it has worked on for months, would provide a global and efficient resolution to the company’s bankruptcy, by resolving creditor claims and even those claims that various Lehman entities have against each other.

Japan’s currency declined against all of its 16 most-active counterparts after costs to borrow in the currency fell in London and Nikkei English News said the central bank is likely to discuss more monetary easing measures at its next meeting. The South Korean won led Asian currencies higher as Asian stocks advanced on optimism a U.S. employment report today will show less job losses than economists forecast.

“Given the fact that the BOJ is already running far behind other central banks in exit strategies and prospects that interest rates here will remain low, the yen-carry trade may become popular again,” said Soichiro Mori, a Tokyo-based strategist at FXOnline Japan Co., a margin-trading company.

The yen fell to 89.27 per dollar as of 2:48 p.m. in Tokyo from 89.02 in New York yesterday, heading for a 0.3 percent loss this week. Japan’s currency dropped to 121.34 versus the euro from 120.91. The dollar traded at $1.3592 per euro from $1.3581. The won climbed 0.4 percent to 1,141.20 against the dollar.

The four-year deal, due to begin in July, will see Emirates become Serie A team AC Milan’s shirt sponsor in place of the Austrian betting company BWin.

Emirates already sponsors several football teams including Paris Saint Germain, Hamburg and Arsenal.

The airline has a pre-existing sponsorship deal with AC Milan that does not include shirt sponsorship.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, AC Milan’s vice president Adriano Galliani said the £52m deal could eventually be worth even more to the club if results on the field go its way.

Milan also has a sponsorship deal with German sports kit maker Adidas until June 2017.

“We are sorry that Scripps’ current financial difficulties are making it impossible for them to continue our relationship on terms that are reasonable for Cablevision and our customers,” Cablevision (CVC, Fortune 500) said in a statement. “We wish Scripps well and have no expectation of carrying their programming again, given the dramatic changes in their approach to working with distributors to reach television viewers.”

“Viewers love our talent and our shows, which is why Food Network and HGTV rank among the top networks in cable,” said Kenneth W. Lowe, chairman of Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI), in a statement. “But our valuable networks simply are not being compensated like top ten networks by Cablevision.”

Scripps says it has launched viewer Web campaigns aimed at getting the two networks back on Cablevision.

Cablevision says it serves 4.7 million households and 600,000 businesses in the New York area.

“The purpose of the relief is to improve investor access to their money in frozen mortgage funds,” ASIC said in a statement on Thursday.

Some mortgage funds froze redemptions in October 2008, as difficulties on financial markets made some of their underlying assets illiquid, or difficult to trade, and as investors rushed to take out their money after the federal government introduced its bank deposit guarantee.

As a result investors were unable to withdraw their money, which would have destabilised the mortgage funds if large numbers did it all at once.

Investment and Financial Services Association chief executive John Brogden said he welcomed the ASIC initiative.

“This conditional relief will facilitate simpler and more streamlined withdrawal procedures for investors seeking to redeem their investments in frozen mortgage funds,” Mr Brodgen said in a statement.

The fall reflects the extension of first-time buyer tax credits, which had been due to expire in November.

The total was far lower than analysts had expected, and the data wiped out early gains in shares on Wall Street.

The main Dow Jones index closed only slightly higher, up 1.51 points, or 0.01%, to 10,466.44.

Home sales had been boosted by buyers looking to take advantage of the tax credit, but now that they have been extended to April, the incentive to buy has disappeared, analysts say.

As a result, “buyer traffic is likely to be flat until spring,” predicted Mark Vitner at Wells Fargo Securities.

The median sales price for November was $217,000.

Its comments came as it reported an 88% rise in pre-tax profit for the six months to 30 September to £75m. The firm’s revenues rose 13% to £789m.

Chief executive Charles Dunstone said: “Each business has delivered a significant year-on-year improvement.”

Carphone also said its planned demerger of the TalkTalk business was on track.

The group will split into two companies by March 2010 with both Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk trading separately on the London Stock Exchange.

The firm’s broadband customer base was up 48% year-on-year to 4.12 million. Strong demand for smartphones – such as Apple’s iPhone – also boosted sales.

Banks, which currently account for most new mortgages, approved 42,100 home loans for house buyers in September, up from 40,100 in August.

Bank mortgage approvals are now 77% higher than a year ago.

The BBA said approvals had now been “rising steadily” for the past eight months.

It added that the number of new loans for house purchase was back to the level last seen at the end of 2007.

“Mortgage lending by the High Street banks is continuing to improve from the lows seen earlier this year and the number of house purchase approvals continues to recover,” said the BBA’s statistics director, David Dooks.

“Housing market activity will depend, however, on more properties coming on to the market.”

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said prices were likely to keep on rising.