The Coca-Cola Company’s 300 worldwide bottling partners are the powerhouse behind the global brand, as Becky Done finds out in discussion with Coca-Cola Bottling Egypt.

UK infrastructure developer Aeternum has revealed plans to develop an energy park near Blackburn in Lancashire, as well as new residential housing.

The company has acquired the 118-acre site of the former Sappi Paper Mill in Feniscowles to the south-west of Blackburn, which it will develop alongside sites at Castleford and Bromborough for mixed use (using the existing attributes of its power station, reservoirs and brownfield land where the mills were situated), together with new homes within the borough.

Osisko Mining Corporation has released a preview of Canadian Malartic operational results for the quarter ended 31 December, 2011.

Fourth quarter operating highlights include gold production of 79,718 ounces, total gold production of 200,137 ounces for first partial year 2011, and an increase in grade mined in the fourth quarter averaging 0.96 g/t Au.

The company also said recoveries continue to be higher than feasibility modeling at 88.3 percent for the fourth quarter. Crusher construction is 60 percent complete as of 31 December, and on schedule.

Swiss food giant Nestlé has announced a RMB 2.5 billion investment in China’s milk district.

The mayor of Shuangcheng, Mao Chen, and Nestlé’s director of Production Technology for the Greater China Region, Zhan Yudong, have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop modern dairy farming in the milk district.

The aim of the agreement is to ensure the district becomes China’s benchmark for best practice in dairy farming and management, Nestlé said.

Daimler and Google announced a deepening of their strategic partnership today at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

The collaboration will offer Daimler early access to Google's application programming interfaces (APIs) known as Google Maps API for Business, for the use of cloud-based, map-related applications in Daimler vehicles, and early access to other new APIs as they are developed.

South Africa's Exxaro Resources has confirmed its bid of up to A$338 million for Australia’s African Iron.

Buying African Iron would give Exxaro ownership of the Mayoko and Ngoubou-Ngoubou projects, located in the Republic of Congo in central West Africa.

Small business confidence has improved for the fourth consecutive month in the United States, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Optimism Index.

For the second consecutive month, small-business optimism rose 1.8 points in December, leaving the reading at 93.8.

The first phase of the controversial HS2 rail line is expected to get the go-ahead from the UK government today.

Transport secretary Justine Greening is expected to back the high-speed 100-mile rail link from London to Birmingham, which will be completed by 2026.

The first London-Birmingham phase will cost £17 billion, while the total cost incorporating the second phase—a further section of the line extending to Manchester and Leeds—is expected to reach £32 billion. This northern extension would be completed by around 2032/33.

General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products, a business unit of General Dynamics, has been awarded a $23 million contract by Spirit AeroSystems in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to produce winglets for commercial business-jet aircraft.

GDATP will produce and deliver composite winglets to Spirit AeroSystems, which then will assemble them onto wings for delivery. Production of the winglets will begin immediately at the company's Marion, Virginia, facility, with deliveries starting in the third quarter of 2012.

Iraq has disclosed detailed information about the revenue it received from oil and gas exports in 2009 in a special report.

Iraq's disclosure of the $41 billion it received demonstrates its commitment to the EITI standard, the global standard for transparency of resource revenues.

The information is published in Iraq's first EITI Report, which details production figures and revenues from the sales of oil abroad in 2009.