A round-up of today's stories in brief
Consortium may revise bid for ABN-Amro
The Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium vying for control of ABN-Amro may press ahead with its break-up bid for the Dutch bank even if it loses a key court ruling next month.
People familiar with the matter said the consortium, which includes Santander of Spain and Fortis, the Belgo-Dutch group, could revise its offer for ABN-Amro to exclude the Dutch bank's US operations, allowing it to compete head-on with British bank Barclays, which has agreed a €63 billion takeover of ABN-Amro.
Last month, the consortium unveiled a €71 billion break-up bid for all of ABN-Amro, including US subsidiary LaSalle. At the time, it said its offer would lapse if the Dutch supreme court ruled that ABN-Amro could sell LaSalle to Bank of America without a shareholder vote.
The odds on the supreme court taking that view shortened yesterday when the Dutch attorney general argued that the LaSalle sale did not require shareholder approval. His opinion is not binding, but the court tends to follow his advice. - Financial Times service
High-grade mineral find for Lundin
Lundin Mining said yesterday that new drilling at its Galmoy mine in Co Kilkenny had intercepted some of the highest grade zinc, lead and silver mineralisation found at the site so far.
The company said there was currently insufficient drilling to determine the economic viability of the area, but the zone was open to the north and west, where drilling was focusing on adding tonnage that may affect the life of mine.
Kerry continues share buyback
Food group Kerry has confirmed that it continued its share buyback with the purchase of 1.5 million units at a cost of €31.2 million.
Ramco sells part of Lansdowne stake
Ramco Energy has sold part of its holding in Lansdowne Oil & Gas for £2.61 million (€3.9 million) after a long-running lawsuit left the group short of cash.
Ramco said yesterday that although the court case had ended in its favour, it had left the company with no prospect of recovering costs and as a result it was important to secure funding.
It said it had agreed a package of arrangements with LC Capital Master Fund, which reduced Ramco's stake in Lansdowne to 61.6 per cent. LC's holding is now 25.1 per cent.
Circle Oil appoints new board member
Circle Oil yesterday announced the appointment of Mohammad Sultan to its board. Mr Sultan is a founding member and managing director of KGL Petroleum, which recently agreed to provide Circle Oil with a $30 million (€22.3 million) convertible loan.
C&C spends €3.2m on shares
Drinks group C&C announced the buy back of 300,000 of its own shares at a cost of €3.2 million.
Dublin still popular with shoppers
The number of people using the prime shopping streets in Dublin city centre remains high, according to property consultants CB Richard Ellis.
The firm released figures for the average number of shoppers on Grafton Street and Henry Street on Saturdays during the second quarter of this year, and said they were consistent with the same period in 2006.
It said an average of 11,500 people per hour shopped on Henry Street on Saturdays, while an average of 12,400 shopped on Grafton Street.
