Marubeni buys US firm Gavilon as it eyes China May 29, 2012 JAPANESE trading house Marubeni is to buy US grains merchant Gavilon for $3.6bn (£2.3bn), the company said yesterday, as it targets China’s growing demand for corn from North America, the world’s top grain export hub. China’s corn purchases are expected to surpass Japan’s annual imports of about 16m tonnes, the world’s largest, within as little [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 29, 2012 Hermes Fund Managers Saker Nusseibeh has been appointed chief executive of the fund manager. He joined Hermes in 2009 as main board director and head of investment. He has also held senior roles at Trust Company of the West, Societe Generale Asset Management, and latterly Fortis Investments. Nikko Asset Management The Asia-focused asset management firm [...]
BEST of the BROKERS May 29, 2012 JOHNSON MATTHEY Credit Suisse rates the chemicals company “neutral” and has raised its target price by 50p to £24 to reflect its increased earnings per share forecasts for 2013-15. The broker now expects to see 19 per cent year-on-year growth in profit before tax. However, the broker prefers Belgian rival Umicore as its long-term materials [...]
FTSE up fourth day but rally may end soon May 29, 2012 BRITAIN’S main share index rose for the fourth consecutive day yesterday on hopes of new measures to tackle Europe’s economic crisis, although traders said the rally could be short-lived due to persistent fears over the region’s debt troubles. The benchmark FTSE 100 closed up 34.80 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 5,391.14 points – its [...]
Hopes of euro bailout lift stocks as Facebook dives May 29, 2012 US stocks rose yesterday as signs Greece would stay in the Eurozone were enough to spark buying in what has been a weak month for equities, while Facebook plumbed new lows on high volume. Wall Street has swung back and forth on shifting signals coming out of Europe. More than three issues rose for every [...]
Repsol invests in bid to offset blow from YPF May 29, 2012 SPANISH oil firm Repsol will cut its dividend and sell billions of dollars of assets to help fund an investment drive aimed at boosting production, as it battles to recover from the seizure of Argentine business YPF. In its first strategy update since most of its 57 per cent stake in YPF was nationalised by [...]
Profits rise at Pennon despite slowdown at waste business May 29, 2012 BRITAIN’S Pennon reported a six per cent rise in full-year profit yesterday as strength at its water business helped offset weakness at the company’s waste management unit, Viridor. Viridor, which was seen as Pennon’s growth engine, struggled in the second-half of the year, hurt by lower prices for waste paper or recovered metals – recyclate. [...]
Genel unsure on Kurdistan well May 29, 2012 Gulf Keystone Petroleum and Genel Energy said yesterday results from the first exploration well on the Ber Bahr block in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdish region were inconclusive, and the companies could not say whether it was commercially viable. The well will be temporarily suspended while a rig is moved to the location to conduct an [...]
Ithaca plummets as bid talks end May 29, 2012 Shares in Ithaca Energy fell 30 per cent yesterday after the North Sea explorer said it had called off takeover discussions with all interested parties. Ithaca said that the potential offers did not match the price it was looking for, and that instead it would focus on developing its North Sea portfolio. The company said [...]
Cobham extends Santos contract May 29, 2012 Defence group Cobham said yesterday it had extended a contract with energy company Santos to provide “fly-in fly-out” services to the Cooper Basin region in southern Australia. The £31.5m contract has been extended by six years, and will now run until 2018.
