U.S. private equity firm The Carlyle Group will invest in around $1.5 billion of property in China, Japan and South Korea, the manager of the company's first Asian real estate fund said on Thursday.

The fund, which will borrow heavily to bolster $410 million of equity recently raised from investors such as pension funds and private banks, is keen on Chinese shopping centers and housing, and offices in Japanese cities and Seoul.

Carlyle's managing director for Asia real estate, Jason Lee, told Reuters the fund would soon sign a deal with a Chinese developer to build middle-class homes in Beijing, despite government efforts to cool a housing boom.

Borrowing heavily to get a property boom under way in China despite government efforts to cool things down?

What say you, Jérôme, or anyone else interested?

Lured by booming oil prices and friendly Kremlin ties, Western banks want to extend Russia the largest loans in its history, brushing aside fears of bad debts, the ghosts of fallen YUKOS and high levels of borrowing.

The biggest loans include $7 billion to fund Russia's purchase of a 10.7 percent stake in gas monopoly Gazprom, $2 billion for state oil firm Rosneft and up to $10 billion for Gazprom to buy oil firm Sibneft.

Jérôme, I know you're on holiday and this looks dangerously like your job (and we all know we'all Yurpeens are allergic to work), but it backs up what you say about banks overlending.

It's now being reported that the Helios plane ran out of fuel. It was due to land in Athens. It should surely have had enough fuel in its tanks to go on flying more than an hour beyond destination? (Larnaca-Athens is a short flight).

The Venezuela crash was apparently caused by engine failure in both engines at once, which immediately leads to the thought of fuel problems (below standard fuel?).

This is pure speculation on my part: but are rising fuel costs pushing fringe low-cost air companies to scrape on fuel to the point of compromising safety?

May I also suggest that we use the "Breakfast" thread for lighter news, and the PDB threads for the serious stuff? Not that it needs to be enforced or anything, but it'll give them their "personality" of sorts...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

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12.33 Uhr: Köhler redet immer noch. Benedikt verzieht keine Miene. Kein Lächeln, kein Stirnrunzeln, nix. Schaut nur ab und zu rüber.

Doch da! Eine Regung! Nummer 16 lebt! Ein leichtes Kopfnicken hinüber zu Köhler. Gottseidank, alles ist gut.
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