Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, a unit of German auto maker BMW, aims to sell more than 100 cars in India in 2011 as demand for premium vehicles rise in the country, its chief executive said, after selling 80 cars in the country in 2010.
MAN executive-board member and head of its diesel and turbo division, Klaus Stahlmann, is a suspect in a bribery investigation, public prosecutors in Munich said, following the German engineering company's announcement of his planned departure.
BAA, the owner of London's Heathrow and Stansted airports, said it took a £58 million ($94.1 million) hit from a series of unprecedented events in 2010, some of which forced airlines to ground flights across the U.K.
Also, BAA said revenue in 2010 increased 4.9% to £2.07 billion as a result of higher airport charges and "exceptional retail performance." Aeronautical income increased 2% to £1.12 billion, and retail income increased 8.4% to £476.3 million.
Russian state-controlled bank VTB Group paid $3.5 billion to gain a controlling stake in Bank of Moscow in a controversial privatization. VTB bought a 46.48% stake in Bank of Moscow and a one-quarter stake in the Capital Insurance Group from the city of Moscow.
DB Mortgages, a U.K.-based unit of Deutsche Bank, was fined £840,000 ($1.4 million) and ordered to pay £1.5 million to customers, in the U.K. Financial Services Authority's first enforcement action on irresponsible mortgage lending in the boom years before the financial crisis.
Bank of America said its credit-card subsidiary was restating eight quarters of reports to U.S. regulators because it took a $20.3 billion write-down due to deteriorating credit and new regulations over the past two years.
BP will market some oil and gas interests in the U.K. as part of a divestment program to recoup the costs of its Gulf of Mexico spill. The North Sea element is part of a plan to sell as much as $30 billion of assets to cover an expected bill of $40 billion relating to the oil spill off the U.S. coast last year.
BHP Billiton is acquiring Chesapeake Energy's Fayetteville shale gas holdings in Arkansas and some pipeline assets in a deal totaling about $4.75 billion in cash. The deal would increase BHP's gas reserves and resources by 45%.
Iraq wants to offer the Nassiriyah oil field to international oil companies in a package that would require the successful bidder to build a nearby refinery, a senior Iraqi oil official said.
Swiss watch exports rose 14.6% in real terms during January compared with the same period a year earlier as booming sales in the U.S. and France offset a drop in sales in the world's biggest market of Hong Kong.
Zurich Financial Services entered a deal worth up to $2.09 billion to buy Banco Santander's insurance operations in Latin America, underlining its hopes to generate future growth from emerging markets.
Medtronic's earnings for the quarter ended Jan. 28 climbed 11% to $924 million as the medical-device maker benefited from increased sales in its cardiovascular and spinal segments. The company also said it intends to reduce its work force by 1,500 to 2,000 positions, or 4% to 5%.
The European Union's antitrust probe into the proposed merger of exchanges NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse will likely enter a more stringent Phase II review, said Dominique Cerutti, the deputy chief executive of NYSE Euronext.
Novartis narrowly won investor backing for its compensation system amid persistent shareholder calls for the Swiss drug giant to change its remuneration practices and curb payouts.
Indian drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories, a unit of Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, posted a five-fold jump in consolidated net profit for 2010 to 14.97 billion rupees ($333 million) from 2.96 billion rupees ($66 million) the previous year, helped by one-time gains.
Perennial China Retail Trust, a unit of property-investment firm Perennial Real Estate, is likely to file a prospectus for a one billion Singapore dollar (US$784 million) initial public offering to Singapore's central bank this week, in what will be the first of several big-ticket IPOs this year, people familiar with the situation said.
Wal-Mart's fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings rose 27% to $6.06 billion as the world's largest retailer capitalized on strength in its business outside the U.S.
Asda Group, the U.K. retailer owned by Wal-Mart, reported rising sales and profit in the fourth quarter of 2010 but warned of an increasingly tough consumer environment this year.
Home Depot's fiscal-fourth-quarter profit through Jan. 30 climbed 72% to $587 million, helped by increased U.S. sales. The home-improvement retailer also boosted its full-year forecast.
Electronics giant Best Buy is closing its namesake stores in China, exiting the Turkish market, and shifting new U.S. store growth to smaller formats instead of its familiar big boxes.
Blockbuster agreed to sell itself for $290 million to a consortium of its debtholders in a pact that gives the buyers the option to convert the video-rental chain's U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation. The agreement also calls for the company to close more than 600 stores by the end of the month.
Hewlett-Packard's fiscal first-quarter profit jumped 16% to $2.61 billion on higher sales in the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions and strong demand from commercial customers.
Amazon.com added a free movie-streaming service to its $79-a-year Amazon Prime shipping membership, ratcheting up the competition with Netflix. It will make 5,000 movies and TV shows available for unlimited online streaming to Amazon Prime members.
Cisco Systems promoted Gary Moore to the newly created position of chief operating officer to help CEO John Chambers steer the technology giant.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn offered to buy Mentor Graphics for $1.91 billion, less than two weeks after saying the chip-design software company should put itself up for sale.
Fresh evidence claiming Google is abusing its dominant market position was filed to the European Commission by French Internet company 1plusV, which creates thematic Internet search engines.
TeliaSonera has made an indicative bid for Polish mobile operator Polkomtel, a spokeswoman for the Swedish telecom company said, in a deal analysts estimate is worth €4.4 billion ($6.02 billion).
Dynegy's chief executive and chief financial officers submitted their resignations after shareholders of the Houston-based power-generation company on Friday rejected a $665 million buyout offer from billionaire Carl Icahn's investment vehicle. In addition, Chief Executive Bruce Williamson said he will resign immediately as chairman of the board.
Drax Group, the operator of coal-fired power stations reported a 61% increase in 2010 pretax profit to £255 million ($413.6 million), but warned that the outlook is challenging due to coal generation margin pressures and expects to report less profit in 2011.
French power distributor Poweo said it expected to post an operating loss of close to €150 million ($205 million) for 2010, of which €100 million was booked for non-cash depreciation, impairment and one-time charges.
The group also said it finalized the divestiture of its 60% stake in Poweo Production—which owns all the group's power generation assets—to large shareholder Austria's Verbund, with a buy-back option, for a cash consideration of €120 million.
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