Briefs, October 3, 2012

British home prices dip with no sign of bounce

House prices in Britain fell last month and will at best stagnate over the next year as a weak job market undermines confidence, Nationwide Building Society said. The average cost of a home dropped 0.4 per cent from August, the lender said. From a year earlier, values fell 1.4 per cent to an average £163,964 pounds (HK$2.05 million). Separately, construction output fell for a second month, the first back-to-back contraction in almost three years. Bloomberg

Foreign rich prefer property in London

London property is the investment choice of 57 per cent of high-net-worth individuals overseas, international property consultants and chartered surveyors Cluttons says in Cluttons International Private Capital Survey 2012, published in association with VPC Asia Pacific. There has been an upturn in global appetite for London residential and commercial assets in the last 12 months, with overseas investors - both institutional and individual - accounting for almost 90 per cent of recent commercial asset transactions. Peggy Sito

Arrium turns away bid from Noble consortium

Arrium has rebuffed an A$1.01 billion (HK$8.07 billion) offer from Hong Kong-based Noble Group and South Korean investors, the biggest bid for an Australian iron ore asset since the Australian government declared the mining boom over. Arrium, previously known as OneSteel, said the consortium's offer was too low and conditional. Bloomberg

More charges laid in Madoff conspiracy

US prosecutors announced expanded charges against five former employees of Bernard Madoff's investment firm, in an indictment that dates the conspiracy to defraud clients to roughly two decades earlier than previously alleged. Reuters

Fix Dreamliner engine, Qatar Airways insists

Qatar Airways will not take delivery of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner until an engine defect is modified, its chief executive said. Qatar has placed orders for 60 Dreamliners and selected General Electric's new-generation GEnx engine. GE said last month it was investigating a second failure of the GEnx engine after a Boeing freighter aircraft aborted a takeoff in China. Reuters