CVC Capital to acquire chemicals distributor Univar for $ 2.7 billion
CVC Capital Partners Ltd, Europe's No. 2 buyout firm, has agreed to acquire Netherlands-based Univar NV , the largest distributor of chemicals in the US, for €1.52 billion ($2.07 billion / Rs 8,729.36 crore).

CVC will pay Univar €53.50 a share, 37 per cent more than the previous week's closing price for the scrip, the companies said in a statement.

Rotterdam-based Univar distributes chemicals to 250,000 industrial users in the US.

The bid by CVC comes less than three months after Univar bought Chemcentral Corp of Illinois to boost US sales 40 per cent and five days after CVC's €800-million purchase of Taminco NV, a Belgian maker of chemical ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry from Dutch

Dutch investment company HAL Holding has accepted CVC's offer and will receive 426 million euros for its 26.6 per cent of Univar stock, booking a gain of 220 million euros. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, the companies said in the statement. (Read More)
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Danone to acquire baby food maker Numico for $14.5 billion
Mumbai: Groupe Danone of France has agreed to acquire Netherlands food group Royal Numico NV, Europe's largest baby-food maker, for €10.6 billion ($14.5 billion / Rs60875.8 crore) in cash.

In a joint statement, Danone said it was offering €55 ($75) a share, which is a 44-per cent premium over the company's average share price over the last three months. Numico said the offer was "a very attractive proposition for all of our stakeholders." Numico has a market capitalization of about €8.5 billion ($11.6 billion).

The deal, backed unanimously by both boards, is expected to reach definitive agreement within the next few weeks, the companies said.

A purchase would be the second multi-billion-dollar baby- food takeover in Europe this year. (Read More)
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Intel acquires 2.5-per cent stake in software firm VMware
Intel Corp will invest about $219 million for a 2.5-per cent stake in software maker VMware Inc. and take a seat on the board of the Silicon Valley software company that parent EMC Corp. is taking public.

The investment will help boost the speed of adoption of VMware's software technology on computers using Intel semiconductors, expanding an ongoing strategic relationship.

VMware 's products allow businesses to get more use out of computers by harnessing hardware resources that otherwise go wasted, using a technology known as "virtualization."

The software maker's software turns computers into multiple "virtual" machines by taking takes processing power on a business computer that isn't being used, reducing the companies need for equipment to buy and maintain in data centres.

Global software giant Microsoft Corp has similar technology but its functionality is widely perceived as being behind that of VMware. (Read More)
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OECD predicts steady growth for BRICs
New Delhi: According to a new study by Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), economic growth in the emerging BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will continue on a steady path even as the developed nations will see a slower progress.

The OECD study said, "The latest composite leading indicators (CLIs) suggest that moderate economic expansion will continue in the developed countries and Brazil, Russia, China, and India will continue with their steady expansion."

The OECD has compiled composite leading indicators (CLIs), which summarise information contained in a number of key short-term indicators linked to GDP for its member-countries since the 1980s.

It was designed to provide early signals of turning points (peaks and troughs) between expansions and slow-downs. The CLI for the OECD area, which covers 29 developed countries of Europe, America and Asia Pacific, rose 0.5 point in May to 110.1 from a revised 109.6 in April.

For China, the CLI rose 3.3 points in May whereas CLI for India increased 1.6 points in April as data for May was not available in the the report. India's CLI rose to 154.8 points in April from 153.2 points in February this year.

The CLI for Russia rose by 1.4 points and for Brazil it increased by 2.4 points.

Meanwhile, for the United States CLI increased by 0.5 point in May and in the euro areas CLI increased by 0.1 point in May and in the UK the index went up by just 0.5 point in the month.

OECD's CLI index is a tool to provide qualitative information on short term economic movements rather than quantitative measures emphasising on movements over time in up or down directions rather than levels.
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Nissan to enter Russian market with St Petersburg plant
Hoping to cash in on the booming Russian market, Japanese carmaker Nissan has begun building a multi-million dollar car plant at St Petersburg in Russia. Nissan, Japan's second-largest carmaker will assemble X-Trail 4x4 cars and Teana saloons at the site for sale exclusively in Russia.

When ready in 2009, the $200-million plant will produce 50,000 cars a year and create 750 jobs.

Building of the plant comes almost a month after Nissan said its bosses would not be paid bonuses this year after the group suffered an 11 per cent drop in profits, the first decline in seven years.

In recent years a number of carmakers, notably Toyota, Renault and Kia Motors have entered Russia's fast growing market, fuelled by its booming economy.

Nissan executive vice president Carlos Tavares said at a ceremony to mark the start of work on the site "Geographic expansion is very important to us. This is a significant step for Nissan in Russia "

According to global accountancy firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers has predicted that the Russian car market would be worth $96 billion in sales by 2011.
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