101.  Cees Maas, a main board director of Dutch financial group ING, arrived late Friday evening from Tokyo, an ING official told AFP.

102.  The Taipei-based Core Pacific financial group is seeking to buy the collapsed British merchant bank Barings plc, press reports in Taiwan said Saturday.

103.  The worst-hit sectors were utilities and financial groups.

104.  The two entities have now decided to hold only one joint news conference to give a broader and more transparent view of the financial group.

105.  UFJ Holdings, the fifth biggest financial group in the world, said in December the sale was aimed at improving its financial strength.

106.  On a related fraud charge, Tapie is alleged to have used funds from one of the companies in his financial group to service the ship at knockdown rates.

107.  The financial group failed in July in its bid to buy CoreStates, a Philadelphia bank, and was targeted for a takeover earlier this year by BancOne.

108.  The former businessman is under investigation for misuse of funds and falsification of documents when he was head of the financial group Grand Tibidabo.

109.  The legal administrators of the failed merchant bank Barings late Sunday confirmed that an offer to acquire the institution by the Dutch financial group ING had been accepted.