UK Banks - The companies, which include members of the FTSE100, are preparing to argue publicly that dividing the banks’ retail and investment banking arms will make everyday business activities more expensive and less efficient. The campaign will be the first large-scale intervention by Britain’s corporations - the banks’ biggest customers - in the highly-charged debate on financial reform. (Telegraph)
UKBP (BP: 35.02 -0.24 -0.68%) - Co. delayed retrieval of the failed blowout preventer atop its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well this week because of bad weather, the top US official overseeing the oil spill. (RTRS) In other news, co. is set to come under renewed fire from US politicians this week as it reveals it has spent more than USD 1mln (GBP 644,000) a week on television and radio advertising since the April 20 oil explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. (Telegraph)
HSBC (HBC: 49.39 +0.40 +0.82%) - Co. completes exit from US auto finance run-off portfolio. (RTRS)
Vodafone - Co. is preparing to raise more than GBP 4bln by selling its shares in China Mobile, the first in a string of planned disposals by the mobile giant. Investors expect the deal to be rubber stamped next month before an update on the co.’s strategy in November. (Sunday Times) In other news, co. is suing Deutsche Telekom after a third of customers that signed up for its DSL connection weren’t served by German network provider. (Handelsblatt)
RBS (RBS: 13.69 +0.46 +3.48%) - Co. is considering a cut-price sale of Direct Line insurance business after a flood of interest from potential bidders, including the billionaire investor Warren Buffett. The bank has been ordered to sell Direct Line by the European Commission as punishment for receiving state aid during the credit crunch. (Sunday Times) In other news, the Russian anti-trust regulator, FAS, has rejected an application from the co. to increase its stake to a controlling one in Russia-based RBS formally known as ZAU ABM AMRO Bank. (Kommersant)
Anglo American - Co. may be offered about USD 1bln for its Scaw Metals steel assets, excluding the main Scaw plant in South Africa which is not for sale, according to an unidentified banker. (Independent)
BHP Billiton (BHP: 66.86 +0.36 +0.54%) - Hedge funds are understood to break ranks with other investors in Potash Corp, by accepting an offer from co. at USD 150 per share. (Sunday Express) In other news, co. denied speculation on Monday that it planned to sell any of Potash Corp’s assets if it success with its USD 38.6bln hostile bid for the world’s largest fertilizer producer. (RTRS)
Rio Tinto (RTP: 50.64 +1.36 +2.76%) - Co. has approved USD 1.6bln for the Hope Downs 4 mine, which will have annual capacity of 15 mln tonnes of high quality iron ore, with the first production seen in 2013. (RTRS)
Tesco - Co. is slashing about 2,000 management roles at its Express convenience stores as part of a restructuring plan. (The Mail on Sunday)
Centrica - Co. and some unidentified companies have approached Connaught to buy its GasForce unit, however Connaught chairman has rebuffed the interest. (FT)
Tullow Oil - Co.’s row with the government of Uganda escalated at the weekend when officials ordered the company to stop work on the second of the company’s three exploration blocks in the country. (Sunday Times)
Diageo - Co. is to reveal it is minded to support a ban on selling alcohol below the cost of duty and VAT, although it denies any link between price and alcohol-related harm. (Telegraph)
Vedanta - Co. is stripped of international safety awards amid concerns that it won without declaring an Indian industrial disaster that cost 40 lives. (Observer)
Reckitt Benckiser - Co. receives FDA approval for Suboxone Sublingual Film C-III. (RTRS)
Encore Oil - The company’s latest big discovery off the Shetland Islands could lead to a takeover approach. (Sunday Times)
Heritage Oil - Co. is targeting Iraq after the Uganda pull-out according to co.’s finance director. (Telegraph)
USEquities finished the session lower despite a slew of M&A activity as instead investors turned their attention to what promises to be a disappointing jobs report on Friday. The move lower was led by the financials that’s after analyst Meredith Whitney said that American banks will need to increase their capital in order to survive the latest decline in the housing market. The last hour of trade saw stocks print fresh lows and at the closing bell DJIA closed down 1.39% at 10009.73, S&P 500 closed down 1.47% at 1048.92 and NASDAQ 100 closed down 1.09% at 1772.07.
Research in Motion (RIMM: 43.15 -2.436 -5.34%) - Co. and India’s government avoided a standoff yesterday by agreeing to extend for two months talks over a demand to open all of its BlackBerry handset services to scrutiny by the intelligence agencies. (FT)
EuropeCarrefour - Co.’s H1 net EUR 82mln vs. Exp. EUR 292mln, reaffirms 2010 profit target (Sources) Infineon - Co. is not currently in talks on new acquisitions. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Tui - Co. will not get a takeover from Russian investor Alexei Mordashov. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Irish Banks - Irish banks are gearing up to repay more than USD 25bln of debt in the coming month, in what could prove an important test of investor sentiment towards the broader Eurozone financial sector. (FT)
Aegon - Co. fulfilled its commitment to repay to the Dutch State EUR 500mln of the EUR 3bln in core capital the co. secured in 2008. This is in line with an earlier announcement. (Sources)
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