Buyout houses circle Iceland February 1, 2012 Two buyout houses have placed bids for frozen food retailer Iceland Foods, people familiar with the matter said yesterday, in an auction that the vendors hope will value the business at around £1.5bn. The bids from BC Partners and Bain Capital are “aggressive” the people said, although they did not indicate whether supermarket chain Wm [...]
ENRC output hit by repairs to equipment February 1, 2012 KAZAKH mining group ENRC yesterday revealed that output from its key ferroalloys and iron ore divisions was badly dented in the fourth quarter of 2011 by the need for emergency repairs. The London listed miner said production of ferroalloys dropped in the quarter, with the division suffering as a furnace malfunctioned. Saleable output dived by [...]
Antofagasta sees copper production jump by 13pc February 1, 2012 COPPER miner Antofagasta aims to increase production by more than nine per cent this year, anticipating slower output growth after an almost 23 per cent jump in 2011 when the miner topped its targeted range, thanks to the ramp up of its Esperanza mine. The FTSE 100-listed miner said copper production in the fourth quarter [...]
China and US help Johnson Matthey sales February 1, 2012 JOHNSON Matthey, the world’s largest supplier of catalytic converters for vehicles, expects second-half profits to be “slightly ahead” of the first, after a third quarter boosted by Chinese sales and North American truck sales. The British speciality chemicals company said yesterday underlying profit before tax rose 34 per cent to £104m in the quarter, in [...]
BHP Billiton sells titanium stake to Rio February 1, 2012 GLOBAL miner BHP Billiton yesterday announced that it had offloaded its stake in a South African titanium operation to rival Rio Tinto. The move marks the end of BHP’s participation in the titanium minerals industry. BHP said it had exercised an option to sell its 37 per cent stake in Richard Bay Minerals to Rio [...]
United Utilities is on track for full year with rising revenues February 1, 2012 UNITED Utilities, Britain’s largest listed water utility, said yesterday it was on track to deliver a good underlying performance for the full year. “In the first half of 2011-12, revenue increased by around four per cent, compared with the first half of last year, and this trend is continuing,” the company said. United Utilities added [...]
Range gets boost in Trinidad February 1, 2012 Range Resources yesterday raised proven estimates for its oil fields in Trinidad by 490 per cent to 12.8m barrels, following engineering studies on the assets. Range, which is dual listed in Australia and the UK, said work has begun on spudding a third well at its Texas North Chapman project, and that its Beach Marcelle [...]
Borders starts Falklands drilling February 1, 2012 Borders and Southern yesterday said it had started drilling at its Darwin exploration well in the Falklands. It is the first in a series of exploration wells that will test potentially large reservoir targets in the deeper water off the Falkland Islands. The drill programme is being carried out further south of the area that [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 1, 2012 Commonwealth Business Council Sir Alan Collins, the UK Olympics ambassador who helped win the Games for London in 2012, has been appointed as director general of the Commonwealth Business Council, the Commonwealth’s agency for promoting trade and investment. He will replace founding director general Dr Mohan Kaul in April. Sir Alan served as ambassador to [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 1, 2012 BABCOCK INTERNATIONAL Numis upgrades the engineering company from “add” to “buy” with a target price of 870p after a management statement that was largely in line with expectations. The broker expects organic growth of around five per cent for the current year, which it sees as a strong performance when compared to the rest of [...]