Hunting snaps up Innova-Extel August 16, 2010 International energy services group Hunting is to acquire Innova-Extel Acquisition Holdings for $125m (£80m) by the end of the month. Innova-Extel is a supplier of harsh environment electronics technology to the energy industry, and the acquisition will boost Hunting’s offering in directional drilling, a practice which has become more common in the industry. It said [...]
Shire in drug withdrawal threat August 16, 2010 US health officials have for the first time proposed withdrawing approval of a prescription drug for the manufacturer’s failure to complete required studies after the medicine reached the market. Shire did not conduct clinical trials to verify the suggested benefits of hypotension drug ProAmatine, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. The drug won approval [...]
Berkshire buys Fiserv and J&J August 16, 2010 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported a new investment in payment processor Fiserv and a higher stake in drugmaker Johnson & Johnson as it boosted stock holdings amid a broad market decline. Berkshire reported a 4.4m share stake in Fiserv, valued at $200.9m as of 30 June, according to a quarterly filing late yesterday with the [...]
Wealth funds pile into M&A August 16, 2010 GLOBAL corporate mergers and acquisitions activity involving sovereign wealth funds rose to more than $12bn (£7.7bn) in the second quarter with 33 deals completed, Thomson Reuters data showed yesterday. Global announced M&A volumes involving state investment vehicles stood at $12.5bn in the second quarter, up from just $1.1bn in the first three months of this [...]
Ireland: Anglo aid is affordable August 16, 2010 IRELAND’S bailout of Anglo Irish Bank, a key factor behind the country’s soaring budget deficit, is “costly but manageable,” the head of its central bank said yesterday. Patrick Honohan, who is also on the ECB’s governing council, said the total cost of bailouts of all Ireland’s banks and financial institutions would be around 20 per [...]
Vedanta buys into Cairn’s Indian oil firm August 16, 2010 MINING group Vedanta said it will take a majority stake in oil firm Cairn’s Indian operations yesterday, in a cash deal worth up to $9.6bn (£6.1bn). The London-listed miner ended weeks of speculation and confirmed it would take control of the second largest oil firm in the country, Cairn India, by purchasing between 51 and [...]
Russian drought set to hit grain output August 16, 2010 RUSSIA’S severe drought may cut its grain output by 40 per cent this year, a leading research group said yesterday, as Russia’s weather service forecast short-lived rains in some areas which could help planting for next year. Leading Russian agricultural analyst’s body SovEcon said it cut its 2010 grain crop forecast to 59.5-63.5m tonnes from [...]
China surges past Japan in symbolic shift August 16, 2010 CHINA’S per capita annual income is just $3,600 (£2,299) compared to Japan’s $37,800 but in the second quarter of this year the once impoverished communist state surged past Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy. The faltering Japanese economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in the three months to June, an annualised pace of [...]
BoE heads for row over UK stimulus August 16, 2010 BANK OF ENGLAND governor Mervyn King will be readying his pen this morning to write his second letter to chancellor George Osborne if annual inflation was, as expected, above three per cent last month. City economists expect headline consumer price index (CPI) inflation to ease to 3.1 per cent in July from 3.2 per cent [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT RISING INFLATION? August 16, 2010 ANDREW DAMM | ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND “Its a bit of a tricky situation at the moment, but in the long term the market will sort itself out. I think it will be a slow recovery and we need to be cautious.” JOHN WHITE | QUASH “Personally I’m not that worried about inflation, but it [...]