Energy giant Chevron has signed deals worth $60 billion to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan and South Korea, it has been announced. The firmÔÇÖs Australian unit is to supply three million tons of LNG from its Gorgon gas field to both countries each year. Osaka Gas will receive 1.375 million tons and Tokyo Gas 1.1 million tons, every year over a period of 25 years.

JapanÔÇÖs third-largest brewer, Suntory, is in talks to buy European beverage firm Orangina from Blackstone Group and Lion Capital Holdings.

Tempe, Arizona-based renewable energy company First Solar has clinched a deal to build the worldÔÇÖs largest solar power plant in the Chinese desert.  The two-gigawatt plant will be located in Inner MongoliaÔÇÖs Ordos City province and is to be built in four phases over a decade on a 65 square kilometer plot of land. It is hoped that on completion the plant will supply power to three million Chinese homes.

French media and telecoms giant Vivendi has announced it is launching a bid to buy Brazilian telecoms operator GVT.

Shares in UK confectionery firm Cadbury soared by nearly 40 percent yesterday on the news that it had rejected Northfield, Illinois-based KraftÔÇÖs $16.7 billion bid for the firm.  It is now thought that rivals Nestl├® and Hershey could form a consortium and submit their own bid, which would avoid regulatory complications arising from a straight Nestl├®/Cadbury, or Hershey/Cadbury, takeover.  Combined, Nestl├® and Cadbury would control more than half the chocolate market in the UK.

T-Mobile UK and OrangeÔÇöthe┬áUK mobile phone operations of Deutsche Telecom and┬áFrance TelecomÔÇöare to merge, creating the UKÔÇÖs biggest mobile phone firm.

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New car sales in the UK rose in August for the second successive month, helped by the scrappage scheme.
 

In a  move to create "a global powerhouse in snacks, confectionery and quick meals," Kraft Foods, the world's second-largest food maker with annual revenues of $42 billion, has offered to buy UK confectionery company Cadbury for £10.2 billion ($16.7 billion).
 

Financial services giant Credit Suisse is in talks with Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Holdings about buying its hedge fund business for $11 billion.  Zurich, Switzerland-based Credit Suisse, which manages around $15 billion under its own hedge fund unit, is seeking to purchase MesirowÔÇÖs Advanced Strategies division, which places client money in hedge funds.  It currently has around $11 billion in assets. The Chicago-based firm also has holdings in real estate, private equity funds and commodities. The hedge fund unit makes up around a third of its total assets.