Petropavlovsk looks to hike its gold production target for year March 28, 2012 RUSSIAN gold miner Petropavlovsk is likely to increase its 2012 production target to reflect an increase in capacity at its flagship mines, chairman Peter Hambro has said. The company, which operates open-pit mines in the Russian far east, is forecasting a 680,000 ounce production figure in 2012 – around eight per cent higher than last [...]
MAGIC GROUP SNAPS UP THE LA DODGERS March 28, 2012 LOS ANGELES Dodgers and owner Frank McCourt said yesterday that Guggenheim Baseball Management will buy the baseball team for $2bn (£1.3bn), helping the Dodgers to finally emerge out of bankruptcy protection. The buying group includes Mark Walter, as well as basketball superstar Magic Johnson, Peter Guber, Stan Kasten, Bobby Patton and Todd Boehly.
StanChart shuts in Afghanistan March 28, 2012 Standard Chartered has made plans to close its retail business in Afghanistan, transferring its operations to local bank Afghanistan International Bank. Standard Chartered’s business in Afghanistan consists of one branch, nine ATMs and gross assets of $229m (£144.2m). Subject to regulatory approval, StanChart will maintain a correspondent banking relationship with the local bank that will [...]
Randgold Mali mines still open March 28, 2012 Gold miner Randgold Resources said yesterday that its mines in Mali were still open despite a coup in the country. The miner’s chief executive Mark Bristow has been in Mali to monitor the situation and the unrest has dented the share price of the FTSE 100 company. The company said that it had been able [...]
HIG swoops for Rio Tinto alumina March 28, 2012 HIG European Capital Partners has offered to buy three French alumina plants from mining group Rio Tinto, Olivier Boyadjian, managing director of the private equity firm’s French unit said. Boyadjian did not provide financial details of the deal. Rio Tinto is selling the three plants – located in Gardanne, La Bathie and Beyrede in southern [...]
Amylin rejects $3.5bn Bristol offer March 28, 2012 Shares of Amylin Pharmaceuticals surged 46 per cent higher yesterday following reports the company had rejected a $3.5bn (£2.2bn) unsolicited takeover bid from Bristol-Myers Squibb. Bristol-Myers proposed an acquisition at $22-a-share in a letter to Amylin, which the board turned down last month, according to Bloomberg, which cited two people with knowledge of the matter. [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS March 28, 2012 First Reserve The leading global investment firm dedicated to the energy industry has appointed Alex T. Krueger as president, the next milestone in its senior management succession plan. Krueger has been with First Reserve for thirteen years, most recently serving as managing director in London. He was previously co-head of the company’s buyout funds. Krueger’s [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS March 28, 2012 OLD MUTUAL After the sale of its Nordic operations, Deutsche Bank has reinstated coverage of the bank with a “buy” rating and target price of 190p, seeing the valuation as attractive despite a 45 per cent rally since December. HENDERSON GROUP Investec has upgraded the fund manager to “buy” with a target price of 149p [...]
Video conferencing: Beyond the office March 28, 2012 IN all aspects of business, employees are increasingly demanding greater freedom of choice as to how and where they work. And giving employees this freedom of choice makes sense for a business – if work can be carried out from any number of locations your company can be more efficient with lower overheads and so [...]
FTSE dented by miners March 28, 2012 The FTSE 100 was pegged back by miners in early trading as the index lost some of the momentum built up over recent weeks. Nagging doubts over the rate of growth that can be sustained in China continued to cast a shadow over the sector and the price of copper fell. Steelmaker Evraz warned over [...]