SORRENTO - The Town Council voted unanimously to accept a franchise agreement with EATEL that allows the company to provide fiber optic cable services to the town for a five percent franchise fee.EATEL's corporate and regulatory counsel Janet Sonnier Britton said at the Tuesday meeting more than 90 percent of Sorrento households would be offered service in the initial six-month company rollout.Both EATEL and video cable competitor Cox Communications now pay a 5 percent fee, town attorney Greg Lambert said. EATEL also pays a five percent telephone franchise fee.

CIT Opens Shanghai Office to Support Growing Global Vendor Finance Franchise

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT), a leading global provider of commercial and consumer finance, today opened its Shanghai Shared Services Center. The service center will support CIT Vendor Finance's customers throughout the Asia Pacific region and demonstrates CIT's commitment to growing its international franchise.

"This opening is a strategic milestone in our international growth strategy," said Thomas B. Hallman, Vice Chairman of CIT. "We believe the consolidation of our servicing and financing capabilities through our Shanghai operations will improve efficiencies and drive increased growth in the region. As we grow our global business we will continue to invest to meet the growing demand for CIT's financing and servicing capabilities throughout the Asia Pacific region."

The Shanghai facility will service CIT's customers throughout Asia including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

RFG deal takes the cake

FRANCHISOR Retail Food Group has continued acquiring by forking out $106 million, including debt, to snap up Michel's Group Australia.

The move follows RFG spending $45 million to acquire baker Brumby's in a bitter battle concluded at the end of June. "It is a perfect fit and it now gives us a very strong national presence with 1027 stores throughout the country and in New Zealand," RFG managing director Tony Alford said yesterday. He said the company was actively looking for further acquisitions but it needed to offer good management. "We are not going out there buying (just) anything. Any other purchase would need to involve a solid company backed by good human resources and management," Mr Alford said. The share market welcomed the latest purchase, with RFG shares leaping 40.5 or 28 per cent to close at $1.84 on volume of 412,000 shares.