American Express Co. said it will spend more than $1 billion to spin off its Lehman Brothers Inc. investment-banking unit as a publicly traded company. To prepare Lehman for public ownership, American Express will pump money into Lehman by buying $890 million in newly created Lehman common stock and $200 million in new Lehman preferred shares. The stock purchases are intended to provide a capital infusion that will put the newly independent Lehman…on a sound financial footing… The long-expected spin-off will reduce American Express's equity by $2.4 billion, based on the company's own valuation of Lehman and the cost of the share purchases.

Foreign banks keen to enter India

In what seems to be part of the renewed interest abroad in the Indian economy, the Reserve Bank of India has received applications from foreign banks… The ones in the queue are banks from Mauritius and Thailand. Recently, RBI granted licence to the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) to operate in India. This is the first bank from that country to have a branch here. Official sources say that applications from the other two countries are being processed…(and) will be given only after considering their financial soundness and the strength of the economies of the countries from which they originate.

US corporate dress goes casual

As starchy corporate dress codes crumble and “casual Fridays” spread to more offices, male wardrobe anxiety is on the rise. The US menswear industry thinks it has the answer: a category of clothing dubbed “corporate casual”, designed to bridge the gap between pinstripes and jeans.

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