Stacks of snacks
One of the latest entrants to the South African snack industry is making a name for itself, as Jeff Daniels discovers.
No doubt the children who attend the factory tour of Blue Chip Snacks do so with visions of Willy WonkaÔÇÖs chocolate factory in mind. If so, they will be very quickly brought back to earth. The reality is that any storeroom holding a couple of hundred tons of potatoes will never be as enticing to young minds as the sweet treats of Roald DahlÔÇÖs fictional world.┬á

A hot prospect

From an experiment in its founder’s apartment to a global brand that looks set to grow still further, the success of Bandito’s Chile Co. is testament to the quality and flavour of its products, as Andrew Pelis finds out.

It is the subtle blending of ingredients that has propelled Bandito’s Chile Co. to become one of South Africa’s leading Mexican food suppliers, renowned for offering consumers an eclectic combination of flavours, mixing Mexican chillies with local African ingredients such as garlic and lemon.

General Electric (GE) and Vivendi have agreed on a $5.8 billion (Ôé¼3.8 billion) valuation of the French companyÔÇÖs 20 per cent stake in television and movie company NBC Universal (NBCU).

Saab, the Swedish car maker owned by Detroit, Michigan-based General Motors (GM), is in talks with at least two interested parties following the collapse of the sale to SwedenÔÇÖs Koenigsegg last week.  The two parties are understood to be Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings (BAIC), which was to take a minority stake in Saab as part of the Koenigsegg acquisition; and Merbanco, a Wyoming-based merchant bank which has long been linked with the Saab brand.  BAIC has not yet confirmed whether it would bid alone or as part of a group.

A number of oil companies are planning to cash in on rising fuel prices by floating on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) next year, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

Rogers Communications, CanadaÔÇÖs biggest wireless company, has raised its stake in Cogeco and a subsidiary for C$163 million.  The increase in shares gives Rogers around 30 percent of Cogeco and 20 percent of Cogeco Cable, which says it is the second-biggest cable operator in Ontario, Quebec and Portugal, based on basic subscriber numbers. Rogers agreed to buy 1.62 million shares of Cogeco for C$46.4 million and 3.2 million shares of its subsidiary Cogeco Cable for C$116.6 million in cash, the Toronto-based company said in a statement.

The Spanish oil company Repsol will invest Ôé¼400 million over the next five years to boost natural gas production in Bolivia, it has been announced.

Shareholders in Canadian energy group EnCana have voted to split the energy company into two separate businessesÔÇöone focused on natural gas, the other on the Alberta oilsands.  Following approval of the move, Calgary-based EnCana will focus exclusively on gas, while its oil and refinery assets will be spun off into a separate company, Cenovus Energy, which is valued at C$21 billion (US$19.8 billion).  The natural gas assets will be run by Randy Eresman, EnCanaÔÇÖs chief executive. Cenovus will be headed up by Brian Ferguson, EnCana's current chief financial officer.