Financial News

By Mathieu Robbins and Megan Davies LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange said it was in talks regarding a strategic transaction, and a source familiar with the situation said on Saturday that the London Stock Exchange is one of the parties to the discussions. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to give further information, and the two exchanges declined comment on whether the pair were in talks. Consolidation speculation has surrounded the exchanges se ...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said it was in talks regarding an acquisition or strategic alliance, in a further sign major world exchanges are getting ready to consolidate the sector. Recently listed NYSE Group (NYX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, a U.S. regulator, that merger activity by other exchanges threatened the position of the world's largest stock market in an intensely competitive industry. The move  ...

Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, on Friday warned that revolutionary Maoist groups posed the single greatest threat to India’s internal stability and democratic culture. // The Maoist insurgency, which has ideological and logistical links to guerrillas in Nepal, has affected around a quarter of all administrative districts in the country. “The challenge of internal security is our biggest national security challenge,” Mr Singh told state chief ministers, who gathered in New Delhi to  ...

European equities fell this week against the backdrop of soaring commodity prices and lower-than-usual trading volumes. // In a holiday-shortened week, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0.5 per cent to 1,369.41. The worst performer was Serono, the Swiss biotechnology group, which suffered a sharp sell off on Monday after an unexpected turnaround in strategy. The Bertarelli family, which owns a contro ...

Mr Tchenguiz made the 550p-a-share offer – which values Mitchells at £2.69bn, or £4.6bn including debt – through his investment vehicle R20.Earlier in the day Mitchells, owner of All Bar One and Harvester told Mr Tchenguiz it would not consider a takeover until a formal written offer was made.Shares in Mitchells soared yesterday, closing 34p up at 497.5p. On Wednesday night it had a market value o ...

European stocks closed out the holiday-shortened week with modest gains, but caution prevailed in low-volume trading conditions. // At the close, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.3 per cent to 1,369.26 An early rally on Wall Street helped lift Europe, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.2 per cent to 11,151.89 and the Nasdaq Composite 0.7 per cent higher at 2,330.52. Carrefour, the world’ ...

LONDON (Dow Jones) -- Belgium's InBev, the world's biggest brewer by volume, has agreed to pay $1.2 billion to raise its stake in South American brewer and Pepsi bottler Quinsa. InBev'sBrazilian unit, AmBev, will buy all of Beverage Associates Corp.'s remaining shares in Quinsa, taking its stake in Quinsa to 91.2% from 56.7%. Shares in InBev, whose brands include Stella Artois, Brahma, Beck' ...

By Sudip Kar-Gupta PARIS (Reuters) - Five French banks pooled their stake of nearly 10 percent in the Euronext (ENXT.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) bourse to strengthen their hand in any merger deal as the world's top stock exchanges vie for pole position in a consolidating market. BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) , Calyon (CAGR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) , Franco-Belgian group ...

Two of Russia's largest food retailers are to merge in a $1.36bn (£777m) deal. Discount retailer Pyaterochka, which is listed on London's AIM market, is to buy fellow supermarket chain Perekriostok in a cash and shares deal. The combined business will operate 880 stores across Russia and have sales of more than $2.4bn. Combined, the two firms said they would have the financial strength to open stores outside Russia's main cities as well as in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. 'World class aim' A ...

By Kim So-young SEOUL (Reuters) - A unit of Tesco and top South Korean retailer Lotte Shopping have been picked as preferred bidders to buy the Korean outlets of Carrefour, the bidding firms said on Thursday. Purchasing Carrefour's assets in South Korea, valued by analysts at nearly $2 billion (1.1 billion pounds), will allow the final winner to take on bigger rival Shinsegae and win greater negotiating power with vendors to cut prices. Samsung Tesco, one of Tesco's biggest success stories ov ...