RIM losses set to continue December 16, 2012 RESEARCH in Motion (RIM), the Canadian company that makes BlackBerry smartphones, is expected to reveal another round of losses this Thursday, as it gears up for a make-or-break product launch in January. Consensus forecasts put RIM’s third-quarter losses at $182m (£112.6m) as it continues to lose market share to the likes of Apple. Despite this, [...]
US mourns Connecticut school shooting victims December 16, 2012 Tributes poured in over the weekend for the 26 slaughtered in a primary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday. US President Barack Obama visted the town yesterday, as some senior US politicians called for stricter gun control laws. Twenty children and six women died in the rampage on Sandy Hook school by gunman Adam Lanza, [...]
Eni pledges cash for Libyan oil December 16, 2012 Italian oil and gas company Eni will invest $8bn (£4.9bn) in the next 10 years to develop its activities in Libya, the group said yesterday The investment plan was presented by Eni chief executive Paolo Scaroni to Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan yesterday in Tripol.
Argentina nears IMF deadline December 16, 2012 Argentina has until today to tell the International Monetary Fund how it plans to produce more reliable data on its growth and inflation, or risk being thrown out of the G20. IMF head Christine Lagarde in September gave Argentina three months to put it statistical house in order, though no immediate action is expected if [...]
MPs to grill Laidlaw over trains December 16, 2012 Sam Laidlaw will appear before MPs tomorrow to discuss his report into the botched West Coast Main Line franchise competition. Laidlaw, the chief executive of Centrica and a non-executive at the Department for Transport, earlier this month published a stinging paper on how poor leadership, overwork and flawed sums led to the collapse of the [...]
First Quantum sweetens bid for Inmet with £3.2bn offer December 16, 2012 CANADA-based First Quantum Minerals yesterday upped its offer for rival mining firm Inmet in a deal worth C$5.1bn (£3.2bn). First Quantum, which has assets in Africa, Australia, South America and Europe, is offering C$72 in a mixture of cash and shares for each Inmet share, which it says represents a 65 per cent premium to [...]
Berlusconi set to wed 27-year-old December 16, 2012 ERSTWHILE Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi has announced his engagement to his 27-year-old girlfriend, Francesca Pascale. The former premier, known for his anti-euro rhetoric, is eyeing up a return to Italian politics ahead of general elections expected in February. Mario Monti said last weekend that he would stand down as Italian Prime Minister once the 2013 [...]
Gruma buys back stake from ADM December 16, 2012 Mexican corn flour processor Gruma has purchased a 23.2 per cent stake of its own stock that was previously held by US agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, part of a $450m deal Gruma announced in a statement yesterday. In addition to the Gruma stake, the firm bought minority stakes in its units Azteca Milling, Molinera [...]
Vivalis and Intercell set to merge December 16, 2012 France’s Vivalis is set to buy Intercell in a deal valuing the Austrian vaccine maker at around €133m (£108m), and creating an enlarged player in the European biotech industry. Both companies are loss-making and the tie-up, billed as a merger of equals, will allow for cost savings of €5m-€6m a year, the companies said yesterday. [...]
Taxpayers face £50m bill from Comet failure December 16, 2012 THE owners of Comet are set to recover £50m from the collapse of the electricals chain while taxpayers are expected to fork out around £50m in unpaid tax and redundancy costs. A report by administrator Deloitte due to be published today is expected to show that Hailey Acquisitions Limited (HAL), Comet’s parent company, is entitled [...]
