Europe

The Czech Republic's Energeticky a Prymuslovy Holding (EPH) and France's GdF Suez are said to have made the shortlist for a 51 per cent stake in Poland's Enea.

EPH has offered 25 zlotys per share, valuing the controlling stake at 5.63 billion zlotys (approximately €1.41 billion), while GdF Suez offered 24.9 zlotys per share or 5.6 billion zlotys (approx. €1.4 billion) for the stake.

The two other bidders are France's EDF and businessman Jan Kulczyk, who offered 5.4 billion and 5.2 billion zlotys respectively.

Eurostar International has announced the award of a £700 million contract for 10 new trains to German manufacturer Siemens.

Siemens will supply Eurostar—which operates high-speed trains between London and the continent—with 10 Velaro e320 trains. Designed by Italy’s Pininfarina, the trains will carry more than 900 passengers at a top speed of 320 kilometres per hour. They will also be capable of travelling on other networks, as Eurostar makes plans to expand into Germany and the Netherlands.

Bob Dudley, the new chief executive of UK oil giant BP, has signed a deal to develop a major natural gas field in Azerbaijan.

The agreement is to develop the deepwater Shafaq-Asiman field, which lies 125 kilometres south-east of Baku. The deal was signed by Rovnag Abdullayev, president of Azerbaijan’s national oil company SOCAR, and Rashid Javanshir, president of BP Azerbaijan.

The gas field has estimated reserves of 17,000 billion cubic feet, similar to the Shah Deniz gas field (also in Azerbaijan), in which BP has a 25.5 per cent stake.

Strong international trading in the second quarter of this year has helped to boost half-year profits at UK supermarket giant Tesco.

Sales in Asia jumped by 12 per cent, European sales grew by nine per cent and US sales rose sharply by 45 per cent during the second quarter.

UK sales in the first quarter were almost flat, growing by just 1.1 per cent. However in the second quarter sales picked up, growing by four per cent.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis has launched an $18.5 billion bid for US biotech company Genzyme Corp.

The bid is said to be aimed at capturing Genzyme’s drugs for high cholesterol and its lucrative treatments for rare genetic disorders.

Sanofi's now hostile $69-per-share offer values the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company at $18.5 billion—the same as its friendly offer made privately to Genzyme’s management in July. Genzyme rebuffed that approach.

The Kraljevica Shipyard is the oldest continuously-running shipyard in the world. Sales manager Dragan Badzek talks to Andrew Pelis about the past, present and future for Croatia’s shipbuilding industry.

Shares in Rockhopper Exploration jumped 7.8 per cent today following an update on flow tests at the potentially world class Sea Lion field in the North Falklands basin.

The UK-based company said that during an 18 hour test, the well flowed for sustained periods at over 2,000 barrels per day.

The group added that had it not been for several constraints on the well, it could have flowed at around 4,000 barrels per day.

With more optimal location, significantly higher rates could be achieved from future production wells, the company said.

The world's biggest offshore wind farm off the UK’s Kent coast is being officially opened later today.

Built at a cost of £800 million, the 100 turbines will be able to produce 300 megawatts of electricity—enough energy per year to power the equivalent of more than 200,000 homes. The 380 foot-tall turbines are spread over an area of more than 35 square kilometres.

Up to 341 turbines will be installed at the wind farm over a four-year period.

France Télécom has bought a 40 per cent stake in Méditel, Morocco’s second-largest mobile operator, for €640 million, marking the first step in its strategy to boost its presence in African markets.

Méditel (Médi Télécom) is the second biggest global telecoms operator in Morocco, with licences for fixed, mobile and 3G telephony. It has been active in the telecoms sector since 1999.

With over 10 million mobile subscribers and a market share of 37 per cent, Méditel achieved sales of over 5.3 billion dirham (€465 million) in 2009.

GDF Suez and its partners have secured $1.3 billion in financing for the Barka 3 and Sohar 2 independent power projects in Oman.

The greenfield natural gas-fired power plants, which will each have a capacity of 744 MW when operational, carry a total investment cost of $1.7 billion.

Together the plants will add almost 1,500 MW to Oman’s existing capacity of around 3,600 MW. Their power output will be sold under two separate 15-year power purchase contracts to the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company, who will be the sole off-taker.