BLACKSTONE TO BUY BIRDS EYE FOR $1.3B
Blackstone's Pinnacle Brands is set to buy Birds Eye Foods, the largest frozen-vegetable company in the U.S., for more than $1.3 billion, people familiar with the matter tell The Wall Street Journal.
JPMORGAN TO ANNOUNCE CAZENOVE DEAL THURSDAY
JP Morgan Chase will announce Thursday its £1 billion deal to buy Cazenove, the Financial Times reports. The FT says David Mayhew, one of the U.K.'s best-connected corporate advisers, will retain the title of Cazenove chairman.
INFINEON SWINGS TO 4Q PROFIT ON DEMAND
German semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies says it swung to a 4Q profit on growing demand for its logic chips and after the prior-year result was hit by heavy losses at memory chip unit Qimonda.
DANONE SHARES FALL ON DOWNGRADED OUTLOOK
Shares in France's Danone fall after the world's largest yogurt maker cut its revenue objectives for the next three years, citing a long lasting change in consumer behavior following the economic downturn.
NATIONAL GRID PRETAX PROFIT RISES ON LOWER COSTS
Gas and power network operator National Grid posts a 16.3% rise in pretax profit despite flat revenue for 1H of the fiscal year due to lower financing costs and higher operating cash flow.
MORRISON SAME-STORE SALES GROWTH SLOWS IN 3Q
William Morrison Group reports 3Q same-store sales excluding fuel and VAT up 4.3%, a slowdown from the 7.8% seen in 1H as slower food inflation put the brakes on a year of stellar growth.
RECKITT MAY BE CLOSE TO MERGER WITH COLGATE
Reckitt Benckiser Group is close to announcing an international deal, and "well-placed sources" say the most obvious candidate is Colgate-Palmolive, a UK newspaper reports.
BRAMBLES SALES, REVENUE FALL
Brambles Chairman Graham Kraehe says that the company's sales for the four months ended Oct. 31 fall 3% from a year earlier to $1.40 billion, with the biggest revenue fall experienced in its CHEP USA pallet business.
SEVERSTAL 3Q PROFIT DOWN ON LOWER DEMAND
Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal says its 3Q 2009 net profit fell 95% on the sharp drop in global demand for steel since the early autumn, although cost-cutting and a foreign-exchange gain keeps the company out of the red.
AXA, AMP HAVEN'T MODIFIED AXA APH BID
French insurer AXA says that it hasn't modified or withdrawn its joint takeover proposal with Australian wealth manager AMP for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd.
BAM TRIMS FULL-YEAR OUTLOOK, PROFIT DROPS
Construction company Royal BAM trims its full-year outlook as it reports a 66% drop in net profit for the first nine months of 2009, mainly due to a slump at its high-margin property development business.
SABMILLER SEES TOUGH TRADING CONDITIONS AHEAD
Brewer SABMiller posts a 6% rise in adjusted 1H earnings and says it expects tough trading conditions to continue in the second half of the year.