Neptune Orient Lines, the world's seventh largest container carrier, said on Wednesday it will shed 9% of its workforce and warned the outlook was grim as the shipping sector faces up to a prolonged downturn.

Singapore's Temasek Holdings plans to join MBK Partners in a bid to buy a 45 per cent stake in PCCW's media and telecoms unit HKT Group Holdings, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

The controversial decision by Merrill Lynch to offload billions of dollars in risky assets at bargain-basement prices came after the big Wall Street firm faced growing concerns from counterparties on trades as well as retail brokerage customers over the massive size of the bad bonds still on its books, people close to the firm say.

"What is happening to Merrill and others is death by a thousand cuts. It's painful to see it happen over and over again," said one banker.

Merrill Lynch will take a $5.7 billion third-quarter write-down as it unloads huge amounts of risky debt, and will raise $8.5 billion by selling new stock.

Merrill Lynch said it expects to take a $5.7 billion pretax writedown in the third quarter due to losses on the sale of mortgage assets and plans to raise at least $8.5 billion by selling new common shares.

Barclays plans to raise billions of pounds by selling stakes to outside investors and offering shares to existing shareholders to boost its balance sheet, sending its shares soaring on Monday.

Singapore state investor Temasek on Wednesday announced plans to boost its presence in Brazil and Mexico to tap growth in Latin America's powerful emerging economies.