Europe

Last week the European Commission said: "The EU pays the price for its outdated and poorly interconnected energy infrastructure." Today the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) publishes a new report with a vision for a modern renewable energy power system, which sets out how the grid can integrate increasing amounts of wind energy.

Sotkamo Silver is in the process of breathing life into the Taivaljarvi silver mine project. CEO Dr Timo Lindborg talks to Gay Sutton about building a sound investor base and the future development of the company.

Rolls-Royce has won an order worth $1.8 billion from Air China to supply and service engines to power 20 new aircraft.

The contract, , is for engines for ten Airbus A350 XWBs and ten A330s, and includes a TotalCare long-term service agreement.

Rolls-Royce will supply Trent XWB engines for the A350s and Trent 700 engines for the A330s.

The Chinese market is fast growing with a clear need for additional aircraft capacity. Rolls-Royce is well established in China, where it now enjoys a 56 per cent share for large civil aero engines.

SABMiller, the world’s second biggest brewer by volume, has reported a 13 per cent rise in interim profits.

The London-based brewer’s results were boosted by this summer’s World Cup and sales growth in emerging markets.

The group’s portfolio of brands includes international beers such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch, as well as brands such as Aguila, Castle, Miller Lite, Snow and Tyskie. SAB is also one of the world’s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products.

Irish convenience foods group Greencore has announced it will merge with UK-based rival Northern Foods to form a new company called Essenta.

The 50-50 merger will create a company with sales of £1.7 billion (€2 billion) and 17,000 staff, with projected synergies of £40 million a year.

It is expected that the new company will achieve annual savings in overheads of £15 million; about £20 million in purchasing; and £5 million in tax efficiencies, with at least half of the cost benefits expected to be achieved within 12 months.

Irish oil and gas company Providence Resources has announced new interpretations of old data that suggest that a field off the west coat of Ireland contains as much as 200 million barrels of oil.

Providence’s Spanish Point project is located around 170 kilometres off the west coast of Ireland in the Porcupine Basin. Drilling, at a depth of 400 metres, is expected to begin in 2012, with oil and gas potentially flowing by late 2014 or 2015.

BP has announced the sale of its Southern African forecourt network to Puma Energy, a unit of international commodities trader Trafigura, for $296 million.

BP is selling its interests in forecourts and supply businesses in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi. The sales do not include BP's refining and marketing businesses in Mozambique or South Africa.

Angola's state-owned oil company Sonangol will buy a 10 per cent stake in Puma's newly acquired assets.

Volkswagen is devising a plan to take full control of Swedish truckmaker Scania and Germany’s MAN, according to reports.

The German automotive giant is said to be planning to increase its 46 per cent stake in Scania, thereby assuming full control—after which it would then transfer its 29.9 per cent stake in truck and diesel engine group MAN to Soedertaelje, Sweden-based Scania.

The plan was first reported in German weekly magazine Der Spiegel.

It is thought that VW would increase its stake in Scania to between 75 and 80 per cent.

London-listed mining group Vedanta Resources has reported an 83 per cent jump in its first-half profits, aided by higher metals prices.

Pre-tax profits rose to $1.1 billion (approximately £685 million) from $605 million during the same period last year, on revenues of $4.6 billion (approx. £2.9 billion), which rose by 54 per cent.

Vedanta said it saw record production of zinc-lead, aluminium, iron ore and silver. Emerging markets continued to drive the global economy, resulting in price rises across most commodities, the company said.