Managing director Paul Craig talks to Vincent Kielty about how a local Ghanaian company has forged a reputation for excellence in a challenging marketplace.

Sara Lee Corp has agreed to sell its North American dough business to Ralcorp Holdings for around $545 million.

The business had net sales of more than $300 million in the year ended July 2010.

Ralcorp’s CEO said the deal will enable the company to be a private leader in the $1.8 billion refrigerated dough category.

The business, which employs 700 people mainly in Texas and Georgia, will operate as part of the Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products division after the close of the transaction.

Premium Transmission Ltd, part of the Karan Thapar Group, has divested its automotive gear manufacturing division to Indsur Global Limited.

Indsur Global manufactures insulator castings for the automobile sector at its plant in Halol, India. The acquisition will provide Indsur Group with access to key customers and a strong platform for expansion.

Premium Transmission is a leading manufacturer of industrial gearboxes in India. The automotive gear manufacturing division in Aurangabad serves mainly three wheeler manufacturers in the country.

With few safe havens left for investors, the price of an ounce of gold has broken $1,700 for the first time ever this week, and some analysts believe it could reach $2,500 an ounce by the end of this year.

When investors are nervous of currencies, treasury bonds and just about everything else, their last resort seems always to be gold. Despite the efforts of Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining and Goldcorp, however, supply can never keep up with this kind of demand, so these price predictions could well prove to be true.

Canary Wharf Group is to construct a new office building of over 500,000 square feet at Canary Wharf in London.     

Work on the substructure at 25 Churchill Place has already been completed, with construction of the 20-storey tower due to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

Canary Wharf Group has called the building of the tower “a symbolic milestone”, as it completes the development of the original Canary Wharf masterplan.

Boeing and Siemens are to form a strategic alliance for the joint development and marketing of "smart grid" technologies to improve energy access and security for the US Department of Defense.

The alliance's microgrid management solution will be designed to implement economical energy-efficiency tools that allow for analysis, control and automation of energy processes; use smart energy controls to provide real-time data to manage energy use; and integrate renewable energy sources and storage.

London-based oil and gas company Terra Resources has entered into a financial partnership with Hendon Energy Fund 2011 to develop an oil and gas concession in Russia.

Hendon has agreed to partner with Terra Resources to fulfil its funding commitments, which are estimated to be $90 million, for the development of the 85,000 acre oil and gas concession in Kalmykia.

Coincident with the announcement of its second quarter results, the board of Kraft Foods revealed plans to separate the business into two independent public companies.

The board believes that the global snacks business and the North American grocery business would benefit from being run separately, as they differ in their future strategic priorities, growth profiles and operational focus.

Ireland’s PetroNeft Resources has announced a “significant” oil discovery in one of its two Russian licence areas.

The discovery was made at Sibkrayevskaya, in Licence 61 at Tomsk Oblast, Siberia.

PetroNeft holds a 100 per cent interest in Licence 61, a 4,991 square kilometre oil and gas licence; as well as a 50 per cent operating interest in Licence 67, which covers an area of 2,447 square kilometres.