KNOC says it won’t increase its £1.67bn Dana Petroleum bid August 24, 2010 KOREA National Oil Corporation (KNOC) ruled out raising its £1.67bn hostile bid for Dana Petroleum yesterday after winning the backing of almost half the UK oil explorer’s shareholders, and said it plans to make more acquisitions. Despite a strong set of interim results expected from Dana on Friday, the state-owned KNOC said in a statement [...]
Vedanta vows commitment to India despite government tussle over mine August 24, 2010 VEDANTA suffered a blow to its plans in India yesterday after the government there rejected its plans to mine bauxite in the east of the country. The London-listed miner is already facing regulatory issues over its $9.6bn (£6.2bn) bid for control of Cairn India, which would give billionaire Anil Agarwal’s group a slice of India’s [...]
Wood upbeat despite flat revenue August 24, 2010 British energy services firm John Wood Group said yesterday it is gaining confidence on prospects for the next 18 months from a resumption in projects by oil companies, after suffering a 24 per cent first-half profit drop. The firm, whose customers include oil majors Total and BP, posted a pre-tax profit of $122.6m (£79.3m) for [...]
Fall in orders at Laing O’Rourke August 24, 2010 Construction firm Laing O’Rourke said it has axed thousands of staff in the wake of a 15 per cent drop in turnover to £4.3bn last financial year, with the UK and the Middle East hardest hit. The number of lay-offs is unclear, but the company spent £16.2m on redundancy costs. The privately owned company’s order [...]
Development Securities in profit August 24, 2010 Property investor Development Securities posted a pre-tax profit for the first half of the year yesterday, after a loss of £19.1m a year ago. The value of net assets fell 2.3 per cent to £238.5m after several revaluations, though the figure does not include the firm’s £62.2m purchase of the Manchester Evening News Arena in [...]
Strong profits set to boost BHP’s bid case August 24, 2010 MINER BHP Billiton is today expected to reveal robust full-year earnings, strengthening its case as it embarks upon a charm offensive across the globe to try and convince investors of the merits of its $39bn (£25.2bn) hostile bid for Canada’s PotashCorp. Analysts expect BHP to deliver underlying earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) of $20.1bn, [...]
Xstrata plumps for iron ore with $381m takeover August 24, 2010 COAL and base metals miner Xstrata pushed deeper into the iron ore sector yesterday with a $381m (£246.5m) agreed takeover of Australian-listed Sphere Minerals, which holds magnetite iron ore deposits in Mauritania. The sale will provide FTSE-100-listed Xstrata with its first producing assets, to supplement its iron ore explorations in the Republic of Congo and [...]
Antofagasta cuts targets despite jump in profit August 24, 2010 CHILEAN miner Antofagasta trimmed its annual production target yesterday after posting a near doubling in first-half profit on higher production and a rebound in prices. “Group copper production from the three operating mines is expected to be approximately 530,000 tonnes, slightly below the forecast of 543,000 tonnes announced in March,” a statement said. The weaker [...]
Dell prepares to sweeten bid for 3Par August 24, 2010 COMPUTER giant Dell is preparing to sweeten its offer for 3Par after arch rival Hewlett-Packard trumped an earlier bid. Last week, Dell offered to pay $1.15bn (£744m) for 3Par, which specialises in so-called “cloud computing” that lets users store documents and files online instead of on a hard disk or server. But HP was quick [...]
HSBC bid ups Nedbank rating August 24, 2010 HSBC’S proposed acquisition of a majority stake in Nedbank received a ringing endorsement yesterday as the Fitch credit ratings agency said it had put the South African bank on a positive rating watch pending completion of the deal. Anthony Walker, a senior director in Fitch’s financial institutions team, said the acquisition “should serve to strengthen [...]
