Ophir in £150m placing to fund its African plan March 28, 2012 AFRICA-FOCUSED oil and gas firm Ophir Energy yesterday raised £150m in a placing to fund three exploratory wells on blocks in Tanzania and Kenya, and aims to acquire additional blocks in the region. The company successfully placed 30.5m new shares priced at 495p each. The placing will bolster the firm’s strong cash position, giving it [...]
BATS strips Ratterman of chairman role March 28, 2012 BATS Global Markets has stripped chief executive Joe Ratterman of the chairman’s role, days after the third-largest US exchange operator’s botched initial public offering (IPO). The board, however, said it unanimously supported Ratterman as president and chief executive of the company and cited better corporate governance as the reason for splitting the CEO and chairman [...]
ADVISERS J.P. MORGAN CAZENOVE March 28, 2012 The execution of the deal was led by Chris Nicholls who is an executive director in the UK corporate finance team at JP Morgan Cazenove. Nicholls also led on the initial public offering of Ophir in July 2011 and has led successful equity raises in recent years for numerous UK companies including John Laing Infrastructure, [...]
Evraz warns of tough 2012 as profit falls back March 28, 2012 EVRAZ, Russia’s largest steelmaker, has said that the outlook for the global steel industry will remain tough this year after its 2011 net profit missed market expectations by 31 per cent. The FTSE 100-listed company, part-owned by tycoon Roman Abramovich, posted 2011 net profit of $453m (£285.3m) – below the $661m forecast by analysts and [...]
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. [...]
