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| | Yahoo co-founder Yang resigns | | YAHOO co-founder Jerry Yang has quit the company he started in 1995, appeasing shareholders who had blasted the Internet pioneer for pursuing an ineffective personal vision and impeding investment deals that could have transformed the struggling company.
Yang's abrupt departure comes two weeks after Yahoo appointed Scott Thompson its new CEO, with a mandate to return the once-leading Internet portal to the heights it enjoyed in the 1990s.
Wall Street views the exit of 'Chief Yahoo' Yang as smoothing the way for a major infusion of cash from private equity, or a deal to sell off much of its 40 percent slice of China's Alibaba, unlocking value for shareholders.
Shares of Yahoo gained 3 percent in after-hours trade.
"Everyone is going to assume this means a deal is more likely with the Asia counterparts," Macquarie analyst Ben Schacter said.
"The perception among shareholders was Jerry was more focused on trying to rebuild Yahoo than necessarily on maximising nearterm shareholder value. It certainly seems things are coming to a head as far as realising the value of these assets.
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| | QIB net profit rises 8% to QR1.37bn in 2011 | | QATAR Islamic Bank (QIB), Qatar's largest sharia-compliant lender by market value, on Wednesday said its net profit rose 8 percent to QR1.37 billion in 2011, mainly due to higher investment income.
In an emailed statement, the bank said investment income amounted to QR631 million at the end of 2011, compared with QR214 million in 2010. The value of its financing portfolio, or loan book, was QR29.6 billion at the end of 2011 against QR29.3 billion a year earlier, it said.
The bank has proposed a 45 percent dividend distribution.
"The results come on the back of a strategic transformation programme that the bank is implementing to restructure both its local operations and its affiliates in order to build a strong banking group with regional and international presence," QIB Chairman Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al Thani said in the statement.
QIB is also planning to raise between $500 million and $1 billion by issuing Islamic bonds.
The lender pulled out of a deal to buy a majority stake in Indonesian Islamic lender PT Bank Muamalat, banking sources said in July.
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| | S Korean central bank to increase investment in China | | SOUTH Korea's central bank promised to gradually increase investments in yuan-denominated assets after being given a licence to invest in Chinese stocks and bonds.
The Bank of Korea on Wednesday said it has secured China's qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) licence, which allows it to buy stocks and bonds traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets.
The licence will help the central bank diversify its foreign exchange reserves, which reached $306.4 billion at the end of December, the seventh-largest in the world.
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