Business Current Affairs March 2012

1. HSBC has agreed to sell its general insurance businesses to French insurer AXA Group and Australia’s QBE Insurance Group for $914 million in cash.

2. The debtors of Lehman Brothers, whose stunning collapse in 2008 sparked global financial panic, emerged from a record bankruptcy and would begin repaying creditors, whose claims total about $450 billion.

3. Australia cleared the way for China’s Yancoal to take over miner Gloucester Coal in a multi-billion-dollar deal that gives Beijing a greater foothold in the resource-rich country.

4. Mahindra Satyam announced the acquisition of BPO firm vCustomer’s international operations for US$27 million. Last month, the company had announced the acquisition of about 15 per cent stake in Dion Global Solutions Ltd.

5. Corporate giant Larsen and Toubro appointed K Venkataraman as its CEO and Managing Director, while its current chief AM Naik would remain Executive Chairman for the next five years.

6. Chintan, an Indian NGO has been chosen for America’s first Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls, for training and organising wastepickers and eliminating child labour from recycling.