Hollingsworth Daily Post

• Finance ministers from the G20 leading economies are meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, ahead of a summit by heads of state and government next month.Continuing tensions over exchange rates are likely to dominate proceedings.China is resisting pressure to allow the yuan to appreciate significantly, and many developing countries also fear a currency rise could hit exports.Low interest rates in wealthy countries have encouraged investors to seek better returns in emerging economies.
• Saskatchewan province, home to Potash Corporation, has asked the Canadian government to block mining giant BHP Billiton's hostile bid for the fertiliser group.The province's governor said the takeover was not in the interests of Saskatchewan or of Canada.Last month, Potash asked a US court to block the bid.The Anglo-Australian mining group offered $39bn (£25bn) for the firm in August.
• AIA, the Asian arm of US insurance giant AIG, has announced the price of a share offering that it hopes will raise about $18bn (£11.4bn).Shares will be priced at 19.68 Hong Kong dollars ($2.53; £1.61) when they begin trading next week.The money raised will be used to help AIG repay the US government, which bailed out the insurer during the financial crisis.AIG failed to sell AIA to UK insurer Prudential earlier this year.AIG is 80%-owned by the US government after it was bailed out for $182bn during the financial crisis.Last month, the company announced plans to begin repaying the US taxpayer.
• Quarterly profits at Chinese internet search engine Baidu have more than doubled as it benefits from Google's troubles in the country.Net profit between July and September came in at 1.1bn yuan ($158m; £100m) compared with 492m yuan a year earlier.Revenue for the quarter was 2.3bn yuan, slightly above analysts' expectations.Baidu now commands more than 70% of China's search engine market, a figure that has risen following Google's spat with the Chinese authorities.Earlier this year, Google threatened to pull out of China in a row over censorship.
• The online retailer, Amazon, has reported a 16% rise in third-quarter profit, as its Kindle e-book reader continues to bolster sales.Amazon made a net profit of $231m (£147m) in the three months to September, up from the $199m it made in the same period a year earlier.Revenues rose 39% to $7.56bn.But the firm also said that its total operating expenses rose more than 40% to $7.29bn, sending its shares down 5% in after-hours trading.
• UK broadcaster BSkyB added 96,000 new customers in the three months to 30 September, leaving it just shy of 10 million in total.Analysts had predicted an increase of only about 69,000 subscribers.Total revenues were £1.53bn ($2.41bn), a 15% rise on a year ago, as customers took up a broader range of services."We have made a very good start to the year with... a record take-up of our additional subscription products," said chief executive Jeremy Darroch.

BBC Business News 22 October 2010