As April draws to a close, the world’s major oil companies are coming out with their first quarter results for 2011, with ConocoPhillips, BP, EXXON and Shell all reporting this week.

Reporting yesterday, the third largest US oil company ConocoPhillips reported a 43 per cent year-on-year rise in quarterly earnings to $3 billion, but said it was disappointed not to have achieved its production and refining targets.

The Boeing Company has reported first-quarter net income of $0.6 billion ($0.78 per share) on revenue of $14.9 billion and reaffirmed its 2011 revenue, earnings per share and operating cash flow outlook.

"We're off to a good start in an important year for our company," said Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We delivered strong operating performance, made significant progress on 787 and 747-8 flight testing, and scored a major win on the US Air Force Tanker program.

Synova Capital, a UK private equity fund focused on the lower mid-market, today announced the acquisition of Actimax PLC, a leading UK supplier of IT and telecoms infrastructure services.

Actimax services include the provision of VOIP, systems maintenance, data services, mobile and hosting services, mainly to the underserved SME market.

"We have been able grow Actimax throughout the economic downturn by combining best quality systems with best value pricing and market leading customer service standards,” said John Massey, CEO of Actimax. “

Journalists of a certain age all over the world are feeling a pang or two of nostalgia today, with the news that the last ever manual typewriter has been made in a factory in India.

Godrej and Boyce, the last company to make manual typewriters, has closed its plant in Mumbai, India, leaving the typewriter officially a product of the past.

Toronto-based Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold miner, is building up its copper portfolio with an agreement to acquire copper producer Equinox Minerals.

Equinox has two primary assets, the Lumwana mine in Zambia (100 per cent owned) and the Jabal Sayid development project in Saudi Arabia (70 per cent owned, but Equinox is in the process of acquiring the remaining 30 per cent).

The car manufacturing industry in the UK is under threat from a lack of local component suppliers, according to Nick Reilly, chairman of GM Europe.

Reilly told the BBC this weekend that the lack of home-based parts manufacturers was the most critical issue facing the UK motor industry, which was obliged to import a high proportion of parts.

Even overseas manufacturers like Toyota and Nissan were finding it hard to compete in their UK operations, he said, because of shipping costs and an extended supply chain.

Bristol Cars, the British manufacturer of iconic hand-built luxury cars, has been bought out of administration by Kamkorp Autokraft, part of the Frazer-Nash group.

The company, which makes only a handful of specialist cars every week at its factory in Filton, Bristol, UK, went into administration on 4 March 2011. The acquisition re-establishes the connection with Frazer-Nash which was influential in the foundation of Bristol Cars 65 years ago.

The Turkish Government has chosen US manufacturer Sikorsky to supply 109 Turkish Utility Helicopters, derived from the BLACK HAWK helicopter, for multi-mission use.

The aircraft will be assembled in Turkey by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) as the prime contractor and will include components supplied by Sikorsky and other American and Turkish companies.  

The Defense Industry Executive Committee (DIEC) has estimated the total program value to TAI at $3.5 billion, inclusive of work to be performed by Sikorsky and other program partners.

A year and a day after the Deepwater Horizon accident, BP has signed an agreement with federal and state agencies to provide up to $1 billion (£600 million) to speed up the implementation of projects to restore affected areas in the Gulf of Mexico.