Europe

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.

Scottish oil services giant Wood Group has announced it is to take over rival PSN in a £600 million deal.

The merger of the two Aberdeen-based firms will create the UK’s biggest oil services company. It will also be Wood’s largest acquisition to date.

PSN, an international energy services company, will merge with Wood’s Production Facilities business to create the brownfield production services provider, Wood Group PSN.

Balfour Beatty, the UK-based market leading infrastructure specialist, has won a five-year rail renewal contract on the London Underground system.

The contract is to carry out track renewal work, which will include the replacement of ballasted track, points and crossings, including all ancillary signalling and drainage works on the Tube network.

The total value of the work to be carried out by the partnership is £220 million, of which around half will be Balfour Beatty's share.

Steinhoff International Holdings is in exclusive talks with France’s PPR to buy its Conforama furniture business for a cash sum of €1.2 billion.

PPR is selling Marne-La-Vallée, France-based Conforama to focus on its Gucci Group luxury goods and Puma sporting goods divisions. The Paris-based company is also planning to sell the Fnac music chain and the mail-order retailer Redcats.

BP has approached a number of UK-focused energy companies about a potential sell-off of its North Sea assets, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.

It is understood that the energy giant has met with utilities and oil companies to gauge their interest in the non-core fields, which are collectively worth around $1 billion.

BP is thought to have approached the organisations on a ‘pre-tender’ basis—ahead of any official auction—to gauge the level of interest.

Even the largest names in pharmaceuticals need some help from their friends from time to time, as Alan Swaby learns in discussion with Penn Pharma.

A career in pharmaceutical R&D is not for those with a short attention span. Perhaps growing bonsai needs more patience; but the painstaking search for new drugs can’t be far behind. Even when an exciting breakthrough is made in the form of a promising new molecule, the hard grind has barely begun.

Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto has made a A$3.5 billion bid approach for Africa-focused Riversdale Mining, in a move likely to spark a bidding war.

Premier Foods has today responded to speculation about a bid by the Swiss consumer goods giant Nestlé to buy its meat-free range, Quorn.

Nestlé is said to have submitted an offer for Quorn via it its subsidiary Osem Group, the majority-owned Israel-based Nestlé venture that specialises in ethnic foods.

Johnson Controls, a major US-based supplier of automotive seating systems, interior components and electronics, has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the C. Rob. Hammerstein Group (CRH).

CRH is a global supplier of metal seat structures and mechanisms and is recognized for its high level of quality. CRH's headquarters and main development facilities are based in Solingen, Germany.