Financial News

SYDNEY AFX - Australian oil and gas group Woodside Petroleum said today it would bid up to 921 mln usd to acquire US-based Energy Partners. Woodside, the biggest publicly-listed oil group in Australia, said the acquisition would help it build its presence in the Gulf of Mexico and increase its production and reserves. The takeover would be subject to Energy Partners abandoning a proposed merger  ...

European markets were mixed Monday, with shares in Italy's Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI slipping after the two agreed over the weekend to a merger. Unilever shares climbed after it unveiled plans to sell its European frozen-food business. The French CAC 40 indexadded 0.1% at 5,116 points, while the German DAX 30 indexfell 0.1% to 5,804 in thin trading. The U.K. was closed for a holiday. The ...

(Updates with full report) PARIS (AFX) - Share prices closed higher across the board, pulled up from early losses with help from opening strength on Wall Street, though dealers said meagre trading volumes due to the absence of London traders for a bank holiday had exacerbated the gains. The CAC-40 index finished up 37.39 points or 0.7 pct at 5,148.52, on volume of just 1.9 bln eur. Among CAC-40 ...

TEMPE, Ariz. (AFX) - Inter-Tel Inc., a maker of communications systems and software, said Monday it will call a special stockholders meeting to vote on a takeover bid by the company's largest shareholder and former chief executive. The company reiterated its opposition to the proposed takeover, in which Steven G. Mihaylo and Vector Capital have offered to buy all Inter-Tel shares that Mihaylo doe ...

FRANKFURT (AFX) - A Commerzbank AG spokesman declined to comment on a report by Russian news website Banki.ru that it is planning to buy Moscow-based Promsvyazbank and enter into private banking business in the country. A spokesman from Promsvyazbank also declined to comment on the report. According to the report, Commerzbank will buy an initial 25 pct stake in Promsvyazbank, then add further st ...

LONDON (AFX) - Western Refining Inc and Giant Industries Inc said they have agreed a merger in which Western Refining will buy Giant Industries for 83 usd per share in cash or around 1.5 bln usd, including 275 mln usd in debt. Western Refining, an independent crude oil refiner and marketer, said it expects the acquisition of the petroleum refiner to be immediately accretive to its earnings per sh ...

PARIS (AFX) - Share prices drifted lower at midday as the absence of traders in London kept volumes extremely thin, leaving the few remaining investors to await direction from the opening on Wall Street later today. At 12.37 pm, the CAC-40 index was down 18.13 points or 0.4 pct at 5,093.00, on volume of just 443 mln euro. "The market is very calm, the London Stock Exchange is closed this Mo ...

MADRID (AFX) - Banco Santander Central Hispano SA considers that the value of Sanpaolo IMI SpA is "not sufficiently reflected" in the share exchange ratio for its planned merger with Banca Intesa SA, a spokesman for the Spanish bank said. "Sanpaolo is the best bank in Italy ... and at the appropriate time, SCH will take its decisions with a view towards maximising the value of its  ...

NEW YORK (AFX) - During a CHAOS strike, like the one Northwest Airlines flight attendants threatened to launch last week, there's very little actual striking. CHAOS, an acronym for Create Havoc Around Our System, employs the threat of intermittent, unannounced work stoppages to apply pressure in contract negotiations, using tactics such as performing safety briefings but then walking off the flig ...