GE eyes German medium-sized acquisition by year-end

General Electric Co aims to buy a medium-sized business in Germany in the next six months to expand its technological footprint, German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing a manager at the U.S. ...

The scheme, which began in August last year, was designed to encourage banks to lend more money, both to individuals and businesses. But the Bank of England has announced that net lending fell by more than £2.4bn in the final quarter of last year. However, UK banks have taken up nearly £14bn since the scheme started. Lloyds was amongst the banks that lent less, while Barclays lent more.

THE Financial Times announced this morning that "cabinet ministers" have been discussing the nationalisation of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Britain's government already owns 82% of the bank after bailing it out in 2008. Fed up with the lack of lending, "senior government figures" are discussing whether to spend £5 billion buying up the 18% of RBS the state doesn't own.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - General Motors may expand production capacity in low-cost countries while closing its Bochum plant in Germany and Ellesmere Port site in Britain, a German magazine said, citing an internal strategy document. If vehicle sales rise, GM would build the additional cars in countries such as Poland, Russia, China, India, Mexico and Brazil, Der Spiegel said, quoting the document, entitled "Global Assembly Footprint". ...

Faced with a barely growing economy, the government has targeted smaller companies as a major source of growth and has introduced reforms to encourage start-ups and make it easier for existing businesses to expand, reports The Telegraph.

On the one-year anniversary of the launch of President Obama’s National Export Initiative, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Mills and Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg announced today the launch of a year-long, interagency, multi-city outreach campaign designed to help connect small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) with the resources they need to sell more of what they make overseas. “For America to win the future, more small and medium sized businesses must export, because the more small businesses export, the more they produce; the more they produce, the more workers they need, and that means good-paying jobs here at home,” Locke said. The first of these New Markets, New Jobs events is scheduled for February 17th in Minneapolis, Minn. Locke is expected to be joined by Kirk, Mills, Hochberg, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, among others. The Minnesota stop will be followed by events in Los Angeles, Calif., Louisiana and Wilmington, Del. in the coming months. The conferences, which were called for in September’s Report to the President on the National Export Initiative, are intended to reach more than 3,500 small and medium sized companies interested in exporting.