Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts last month did more than just break the Democrats filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It also brought the movement into the mainstream as the Tea Party played at least an indirect role in helping the Republican
Between the State of the Union address and this week’s budget, President Obama has recently proposed a series of initiatives aimed at tackling America’s stubbornly high unemployment rate, including:– Giving $30 billion of TARP funds to community banks in
Australian wealth manager AMP Ltd will not seek to extend its exclusive agreement with France’s AXA SA on a joint $11.4 billion bid for AXA’s Australian unit, sources tell Reuters, opening the door for rival bidder National Australia Bank Ltd to start talks with AXA SA.
Shares in Thailand’s Thanachart Capital jump ahead of the announcement of the winning bid for a stake in Siam City Bank (SCIB), for which its Thanachart Bank is the frontrunner. Kaohoon newspaper reports that Thanachart Bank, also 49 percent owned by Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia, has put in the highest bid of around $958 million for the 47 percent stake, beating HSBC.
In other M&A and corporate finance news reported by Reuters and other media on Wednesday:
Dubai World’s investment arm Istithmar has put port and shipping agent Inchcape Shipping Services up for sale for $600 million to $700 million and has attracted interest from private equity groups, the Financial Times says.
Britain’s consumer watchdog has asked for a say in the planned merger of the UK arms of France Telecom’s Orange and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, raising the threat of at least a delay to any deal.
An Australian court has rejected a demerger proposal from Australian sugar and building materials conglomerate CSR Ltd, domestic media reports. For the Reuters story click here.
Singapore’s ST Telemedia, a unit of investment company Temasek, is to buy Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan’s 33 percent stake in Malaysian 3G company U Mobile, the Star newspaper reports.
Munching on a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar, Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld says in an interview she expects to complete the takeover of Cadbury within weeks. As Rosenfeld warmly welcomed Cadbury employees into the Kraft fold, Twitter was buzzing with bad chocolate and cheese headlines.
Get the full story here, along with statistics of the combined Kraft/Cadbury company and a timeline of the deal.
Kraft has promised $675 million in annual cost savings from the deal, which will mean cuts to Cadbury’s global workforce of more than 45,000 during the integration process, analysts said.
“We just want a few safeguards. What are they going to do? Kraft has not said anything up until now. The unions have said it is a predatory company,” the BBC quotes a Cadbury employee.
More reaction to the merger:
Global staffing firm Manpower reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit amid improved demand for temps. Based on trends it sees in the employment business, it is growing more and more confident that economic recovery has traction.
How confident? It is also buying professional staffing firm Comsys IT Partners, a provider of technology staff, for $17.65 per share, or $431 million including debt. Rival Spherion said late on Monday it would buy Tatum LLC, a provider of interim executives, for $46 million. In its quarterly results, Manpower also forecast its first quarterly sales increase in more than a year.
Always hot monthly non-farm payrolls data is due out at the end of the week. While it may not provide the bullish magic bullet economists hope for the recovering U.S. economy – currently, economists are forecasting a slim 5,000 rise in jobs for the month — the deals buzzing around the worker service space are at least signs that the business of employment is healthy enough to digest deals.