Europe

Spanish construction company ACS has gained a key stake in rival Hochtief, after it announced it now holds more than 30 per cent of shares in the German group.

The stake represents a key stage in ACS’s strategy to take full control of Hochtief, because it can now buy Hochtief shares on the open market and accumulate more than half of the company. ACS announced its bid for full control of Hochtief last September.

Iraq has given the go-ahead for Royal Dutch Shell to build a dock in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, to help move heavy equipment to the Majnoon oilfield.

Shell is to fund construction of the 25-metre quay, which will be used to move materials from the sea port at Umm Qasr near Basra to the Majnoon oilfield it is developing—a transportation method that is faster, safer and easier than moving materials by truck.

Renewable energy firm RES has received approval from the Scottish government for its 99 megawatt wind farm, located approximately 20 miles south of Inverness at Dunmaglass.

The wind farm will comprise 33 turbines, each with a maximum height of 120 metres to the tip of the blade, and is expected to generate electricity equivalent to the average annual demand of around 46,000 Scottish households.

The Scottish government said the construction phase of the development would create work for about 55 people.

Aston Martin is in talks with Daimler over a potential plan that would see the British luxury carmaker design and build the German company’s Maybach brand, according to a report in the Financial Times.

According to the FT, the partnership would see Aston Martin take engine technology from Daimler in exchange for building cars. It is thought that Daimler’s four-wheel-drive technology could be particularly useful to the British company, as it is considering making an off-road vehicle.

Aggreko has won a £37 million contract to supply temporary power to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012.

The Glasgow-based company has been awarded a contract by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to be the exclusive supplier of temporary energy services for the event.

Aggreko will provide about 220 megawatts of power to the games—around 60 megawatts more than it supplied at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

France’s Ingenico, the world’s largest maker of electronic payment terminals, has rejected a €1.4 billion takeover offer.

The bidder is unnamed, though reports suggest it to be the US industrial conglomerate Danaher Corp.

RPC Group, the UK plastic packaging supplier, has announced it will acquire its Danish rival, packaging maker Superfos Industries, for about €240 million.

RPC said the deal would provide it with factories in Poland and Scandinavia, as well as operations in Turkey and North Africa.

Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis has bought the remaining shares in US eyecare company Alcon it did not already own for $12.9 billion (£8.2 billion), thus sealing 100 per cent ownership.

Novartis had been trying to assume total ownership of Alcon since January, when it paid $28.1 billion for a 77 per cent stake in the US company from food giant Nestlé.

Alcon is famous for its contact lens solutions and is also a leader in intraocular lenses, tiny lenses that are implanted in the eye to correct focusing problems.

The West African nation of Ghana is due to pump its first oil today following the discovery of the offshore Jubilee Field three years ago.

A consortium led by UK-based Tullow Oil hopes to produce 55,000 barrels per day increasing to 120,000 barrels in six months, with Ghana expected to earn around $400 million (£254 million) in the first year. Ghana’s government has forecast a boost to the country’s economic growth rate of up to seven per cent in the space of a year—from five per cent to 12 per cent.

UK chemicals company Yule Catto has agreed to acquire its German rival PolymerLatex for €443 million (£376 million).

PolymerLatex, which makes a range of rubber-based products similar to Harrow-based Yule Catto’s, is currently owned by private equity house TowerBrook Capital Partners.

Under TowerBrook’s ownership, the company built a €60 million plant in Malaysia and created a new R&D facility near Dusseldorf, Germany.