Eurostar, the high-speed passenger rail service, has reported strong growth in first half sales revenues and passenger numbers.

Sales revenues were up four per cent from £404 million to £421 million in the first half of 2011, with passenger numbers rising three per cent from 4.6 million to 4.7 million year-on-year.

PepsiCo has joined forces with Grupo Embotelladoras Unidas to create a nationwide beverage company in Mexico.

The joint venture will combine PepsiCo’s beverage manufacturing and distribution operations in Mexico with those of GEUSA, a subsidiary of GEUPEC. Empresas Polar, the largest food and beverage company in Venezuela and a longtime leading bottler of Pepsi-Cola products in that country, will have an equity stake in the joint venture.

UK airport operator BAA will be required to sell Stansted Airport, followed by Edinburgh or Glasgow Airport, the Competition Commission (CC) confirmed today.

The decision upholds the CC’s earlier provisional view, which was published in March.

The CC had been considering whether there were any material changes in circumstances since it published its final report on BAA in March 2009 that should give it cause to reconsider the implementation of the airport sales.

Global pallet and container pooling services supplier CHEP has secured a new contract in the US with compact industrial vehicle producer Bobcat Company.

The companies have formed a three-year partnership under which CHEP Automotive Americas will be Bobcat’s returnable packaging provider for its manufacturing operations in North Dakota.

Swiss commodities giant Glencore has announced it will acquire a 70 per cent interest in the Peruvian mine owner Marcobre.

Glencore International AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Glencore International Plc, will purchase the stake from Hong Kong-based copper mining company CST Mining Group for US$475 million (approximately €338 million).

Marcobre is the sole owner of the Marcona Copper Property and the Mina Justa Project, which has a resource of 413.3 million tonnes, with 0.79 per cent copper.

The deal is expected to close in October 2011.

BHP Billiton has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Texas-based oil and gas company Petrohawk Energy to expand its interests in the booming shale gas market.

The equity value of the transaction is $12.1 billion, and the Petrohawk board of directors has unanimously recommended the offer to shareholders.

Fahad Al Gergawi, CEO of Dubai’s Foreign Investment Office, offers his perspective on a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit on the Gulf Cooperation Council’s trade and investment strategy.

In the light of current energy issues, Toni Johnson looks at the potential of natural gas, particularly shale gas, to fill some gaps.

Rob Greenslade of Centralis discusses the impact of cloud transformation in the desktop environment and warns of the dangers in adopting ‘bargain’ fixed-price DaaS offerings.

The concept of providing virtualised applications to desktops, as a service, and for a fixed price, is tempting for almost any business looking to reduce costs and increase efficiency and agility. Yet transformation can be tricky, and questions remain over strategy, compliance and ROI.

Rather than compete simply on price and quality, says John Tschohl, create a service culture and watch your sales soar.

Quality and price are two criteria for consumers when making a purchasing decision. So it is that most businesses compete by matching the quality and prices of their products and services.