China's sixth largest lender, China Merchants Bank, or CMB, announced on Tuesday that it had completed the 17 billion yuan, or 2.48 billion U.S. dollar, purchase of 53.12 percent of equity in Wing Lung Bank.

Ma Weihua, CMB's president, will serve as the bank's board chairman, while CMB's vice president, Zhang Guanghua, would act as the vice chairman of the family-run bank based in Hong Kong, according to the public announcement of the Shanghai-listed CMB.

There are currently ten members on the Wing Lung Bank's board of directors, with five from the CMB and the others from Wing Lung.

Ma said the recent global financial turmoil had a relatively small impact on the two banks and would not diminish the strategic importance of CMB's purchase.

He added that the CMB holds a positive view of the economic prospects in both the country's mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Since its incorporation in 1933, Wing Lung has developed into the fourth largest bank in the special administrative region of China.

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MidAmerican Energy Holdings said it would pay 230 million US dollars for a 10 percent stake in Chinese rechargeable battery firm BYD to support its 'green' technologies.

The deal gives MidAmerican a foothold in the Hong Kong-listed company, which is developing electric-hybrid cars expected to hit lots in China later this year and in Europe by 2010.

David Sokol, chairman of MidAmerican, said the technologies being developed by BYD will be an integral part of future environmental efforts related to global climate change.

Israel's Clal Industries and Investments said on Thursday it had signed a deal to import electric cars from BYD for sale in Israel.

The firm says its cars will be able to travel 300 kilometers on a single charge, which takes nine hours. However, the lithium-ion battery can be charged to 80 percent capacity in just 15 minutes.

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Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group said earlier this week it will buy a 21 percent stake in the second-largest U.S. brokerage firm, Morgan Stanley, for 9 billion US dollars.

The move is a further step to bail out the U.S. financial institutions embroiled in widespread economic turmoil.

Under an agreement with Morgan Stanley, Mitsubishi group will inject a 3 billion-dollar portion of the investment via a common share purchase. The remaining 6 billion dollars will come through the purchase of perpetual preferred shares.

The deal allows Mitsubishi to keep its equity stake in Morgan Stanley above the 20 percent line.