Tuesday, AprilS, 2011
DAILY TRUST
Busi ness/I nternationa I
Libya rebels to sell first oil cargo this week - Report LIBYAN rebels will this week load the first tanker with crude since an uprising against leader Muammar Gaddafi fully suspended exports from the North African country, Platts news agency reported yesterday. The ageney said Liberianregistered tanker Equatorwas due to arrive in the rebel-held eastern Libyan port oITobruk yesterday to load a cargo of Serir/Mesla blend crude oil. Theageney quoted Wahid Bougaighis, head of the newly
World stocks rally on Merger, Acquisition
established oil company, as saying: "They are coming for sure because there was a contract signed already." He gave no other details. Reuters could not reach Bougaighis for comment. The rebel-led government has said it has concluded a deal with Qatar to market crude oil. The rebel movement has also said it is discussing plans to exempt its oil exports from sanctions and has also raised the issue with a U.N. envoy.
MERGER and acquiSition activity helped lift global equities yesterday. though Wall Street struggled to maintain gains in early trade. Crude oil prices hit2-112-year highs as the wuest in Libya continued to unnerve investors. Expectations that the European Central Bank will raise euro wne interest rates at its meeting on Thursday drove the euro briefly to an II-month high against the japanese yen, but later slipped because expectations of higher rates have already been priced in. World stocks as measured by MSCI were up 0.6 percent, rising to the highest level in more than a month and up more than 5 percent for the year to date. In the latest acquisition news, Pfizer Inc rose O.S percent to $20.54 after the drug maker agreed to sell its CapSUgelllnit, the world's largest makerofhard capsules, to private equity finn KKR & Cofor nearly $2.4 billion. And in Europe Belgian dlemica1s group Solvay lawlChed a bid for French rival Rhodia, driving up Rhodi.sshares 48 percent. On Wall Street the broad S&P 500 mced levels where selling hasdustered in recent sessions, hovering just above 1,333, a level that it has been unable to dose above since mid-February. (Reu-
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V dafone to 5eIl44 5 ketoVivendi VODAFONE is to sell its 44% stake in the French mobile pho ne operator SFR to Vivend;"路 for 7.95 billion euros (拢7bn) . The de al gives Vivendi, France's biggest mobile phone business, full control ofSFR and ends months of talks with Vodafone. The UK company has been slimming down its portfolio, and recently sold stakes in Chinese and japanese mobile operators.
Vodafone will return 拢4 billion to its shareholders by buying back shares. The UK company's chief exec utive, Vittorio Colao, said in a statement that Vodafone would continue sales of some assets in operations it does not control. "The sale of our stake in SFR, at an attractive multiple, represents a significant further step in the execution of this strategy:' he said.
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Vive ndi operates a range of businesses, including Univers al Music, the record label behind Lady Gaga, justin Bieber and Rihanna . It also controls video games maker Activision Blizzard, Brazilian telecom company GVT, and Canal Plus television. Vodafone's deal with Vivendi is expected to be completed by june. (BBC)
l-vorian cocoa weather good, crisis disrupts harvest IVORY Coast's weather last week was ideal for the development of the April-to-September midcrop with both rain and sunshine, but political instability was disrupting the harvest, farmers and analysts said yeste~day. This year's mid-crop cocoa was expected to be larger compared with last season.But a violent political standoff in the world's top cocoa producing nation after a disputed election that has rekindled a civil war is stopping farmers from going to their farms and many have fled the cocoa producing regions. In the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, one analyst working for an industrial plantation reported 22 millimetres of rain mixed with sunny spells adequate for the ripening and the proliferation of small pods. Howeve r, farmers said the political trouble was preventing them from harvesting pods already ripe on trees. "There are lots of ripe pods. We want to harvest them, but we can not because there is no路 means of travel;' Lazard Ake farms who farms in the outskirts of Soubre.Soubre is one of the towns in the cocoa producing region of Ivory Coast, seized by forces loyal to presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara in their southward push. The forces now control over 90 percent of the country including the cocoa exporting port of San Pedro."There is insecurity and some of the fighters are seizing people's cars and trucks. The quality of the cocoa will degrade if the ripe pods remain too lo ng on the trees without being
harvested:' Ake said. In the centre-western region of Daloa, producing a quarter of Ivory Coast's national output, farmers reported three good rains which would help cocoa beans. Farmers said many growers have fled the town for the campaign fearing for their security:The rain is good and all is well with
cocoa:' said farmer Marcel Aka. He added the many farmers have fled the city to go to the to the forest where they can fmd food
easily. In the southern region of Aboisso, analysts reported 37.7 millimetres:'The weather is good but there is no one to buy the cocoa:' said farmer Etienne Yao who added that many growers are not bothering to harvest. Similar weather conditions were reported in coastal regions of Sassandra and San Pedro, in eastern region of Abengourou, in ~o uthern regions of Agboville and Divo and in western regions ofMeagui and Gagnoa. (Reuters)
Oil finds $100 fioor on Saudi politiCS, output
costs OIL prices may have found a new floor around $100 a barrel, supported by rising production costs and higher budgetary requirements in Saudi Arabia, the only country holding any significant spare production capacity. With oil also finding support from a return to stronger global economic growth, crude markets may have a more lasting justification for price strength than Arab world wuest The $100 floor for Brent crude compares to the $75 a barrel "fair price" for producers and consumers identified at the end of 200S by leading OPEC nation Saudi Arabia. F:>r a while that served as a guide to markets of when Saudi Arabia, as effective head of the Organization of the Petroleum Countries, might alter supply to manage prices. Even late last year, before rebellion in Libya saw prices rocket to a two-and-a-halfyear high of $120 a barrel, OPEC was finding reasons why it should not try to anchor prices at $75. Brent last traded below $100 on Feb S and was above $119 on Monday, taking its year-to-dateaverage for 2011 to almost $1 06 a barrel, ahead of200S's record annual average of $9S.52. Unrest across the Middle East means Saudi Arabi.s focus is no longer on the need to moderate prices to shore up long-term demand and appease the world's biggest oil consumer the United States. Weafer estimates Saudi Arabia now needs close to $100 a barrel to balance its budget (Reuters)