Buncefield sentence to be handed down today July 15, 2010 A JUDGE will today hand down a sentence expected to run into the millions to companies linked to the 2005 Buncefield explosion. Today the St Alban’s Crown Court will sentence five companies for their involvement in the disaster, which caused damage spreading over a 450-metre area north of London and injured more than 40 people. [...]
Bidding interest in Caledon Resources hots up after collapse of Polo merger July 15, 2010 A BIDDING war for Australian coking coal producer Caledon Resources has been ignited after merger talks with rival Polo Resources fell through last month. Aim-listed Caledon told the stock exchange yesterday that it had received “a number of unsolicited and indicative enquiries from third parties in respect of possible alternative transactions, one of which relates [...]
Stress tests set to clear UK and Italian banks July 15, 2010 Italian and British banks will come through European stress tests without needing to raise new capital, top officials said yesterday. “The tests on Italian banks will obviously present diverse results but I am confident that they will show that the capital resources of the single banks are adequate,” said Bank of Italy Governor and European [...]
GSK hit by a £1.57bn legal charge claim July 15, 2010 AGLAXOSMITHKLINE expects to record a legal charge of £1.57bn for the second quarter after settling the “substantial majority” of claims relating to its controversial diabetes pill Avandia. The move, designed to clear the decks of outstanding legal issues, will wipe out most of the drugmaker’s expected earnings for the three months to June but leaves [...]
Tullow Oil strikes black gold in Uganda July 15, 2010 BRITISH oil firm Tullow has struck a new deposit of black gold in western Uganda, the firm said yesterday. The FTSE 100 firm said exploration in the Butiaba region hit about 10 metres of net oil pay, after drilling to a depth of 587m. Tullow already has three licences to drill in the region, after [...]
Abertis bidders eye financing July 15, 2010 A consortium looking to acquire Spanish motorway operator Abertis in a leveraged buyout worth at least €25bn (£20.9bn) yesterday said it was considering several structures to finance its bid. It is also understood that the bidding group hopes to sell stakes held by Abertis in two highway operators, Italy’s Atlantia and Portugal’s Brisa, that could [...]
Premier expects a 17 per cent rise in oil production July 15, 2010 PREMIER Oil said it expects average first-half production to rise 17 per cent and that its full-year production remains in line with expectations. Estimated average group production for the first half was 46,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) while forecast full-year production continues to be around 44,000 boepd. “Premier continues to make good [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 15, 2010 DFS The sofa retailer, which was recently sold by founder Lord Kirkham to private equity group Advent International for £500m, has ended its search for a new chief executive. Ian Filby has thirty years of retail experience, including a recent stint working as interim chief executive at Nectar. He was also previously retail brand development [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 15, 2010 NOVARTIS Standard & Poor’s Equity Research (S&P) rates Novartis as “buy” due to its strong second quarter results. Sales are up 12 per cent thanks to volume growth, especially in vaccines, according to S&P, which said in its view, the well-managed volume-driven diversification of Novartis will offset foreseeable negatives. WETHERSPOON Seymour Pierce upgrades Wetherspoon to [...]
London shares decline due to weak US data with banks and miners hit worst July 15, 2010 WEAK US data intensified anxiety about economic recovery and dragged Britain’s top share index to a lower close yesterday, with risk-sensitive banks and commodity stocks hit hardest. The FTSE 100 ended 42.23 points or 0.8 per cent lower at 5,211.29. It closed down 0.3 per cent on Wednesday, snapping a six-day winning streak. Producer prices [...]
