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 [...]
FTSE gains as manufacturing bounces back February 1, 2012 The FTSE rose this morning as better-than-expected UK and Chinese manufacturing data gave investor sentiment a boost and fuelled gains in mining and banking. Britain’s manufacturing sector unexpectedly returned to growth in January as orders rose for the first time in six months, indicating the UK could avoid recession if the sector continues to recover [...]
Four admit plotting LSE bomb attack February 1, 2012 Four men have admitted plotting to detonate a bomb in the London Stock Exchange. Mohammed Chowdhury, Shah Rahman, Gurukanth Desai and Abdul Miah pleaded guilty to the charge of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism. They had been inspired by the preachings of the Islamic extremist Anwar Al-Awlaki, connected to Al-Qaeda. The [...]
Court rules BAA must sell Stansted February 1, 2012 Airport operator BAA must sell London Stansted airport in order to pave the way for better competition, a court has ruled. The ruling is the latest twist in a long battle between BAA and the Competition Commission (CC), which stretches back to 2009 when it was ruled that the group exerted a dominant hold on [...]
Deutsche Boerse says Brussels blocked NYSE deal February 1, 2012 Deutsche Boerse said it will unwind a deal to take over NYSE Euronext after European Commission regulators said they would block a combination of the two companies.