IN BRIEF (Page 16)
African acquisitions
Istithmar PJSC, a state-owned Dubai investment company, plans to spend $900 million buying an airline in Africa and a stake in an international bank.
Gulf News cited Vice Chairman Khaled al-Kamda as saying Istithmar plans to spend at least $200 million buying an African carrier and $700 million on shares of a "major" bank. Istithmar bought a $1 billion stake in Standard Chartered Plc last year.
Purchase approved
Spanish construction firm Acciona and Italian power company Enel won permission from the European Commission yesterday to buy Spain's biggest power utility, Endesa.
"The commission concluded that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it," the European Union executive said in a statement.
Australian sale
Southeast Asia's largest food and beverage group, San Miguel, is in talks to sell a stake in Australia's National Foods Group, its biggest overseas business, to Kirin Holdings as it seeks funding for a shift into heavy industry.
San Miguel and Japan's second-largest brewer confirmed yesterday they were in preliminary negotiations. Kirin is a longtime partner of San Miguel and owns 20 percent of the Philippine group.
Gas discovery
Statoil ASA, Norway's largest oil company, found natural-gas at a site near the Aasgard field in the Norwegian Sea.
Preliminary estimates show the discovery may be between 1 billion and 3 billion cubic meters of extractable gas, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said yesterday. The find is expected to be tied back to infrastructure at Aasgard, the directorate said.
Agencies-Bloomberg News
(China Daily 07/06/2007 page16)
