General Motors returned to Wall Street in grand style yesterday with the largest IPO in US history, raising $23 billion to start paying back its $50 billion government loan.

Almost half of the US Treasury’s share holding went up for sale at $33 a share for preferential buyers ($35 for others), but still leaves the government some way short of recouping its total investment.

SABMiller, the world’s second biggest brewer by volume, has reported a 13 per cent rise in interim profits.

The London-based brewer’s results were boosted by this summer’s World Cup and sales growth in emerging markets.

The group’s portfolio of brands includes international beers such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch, as well as brands such as Aguila, Castle, Miller Lite, Snow and Tyskie. SAB is also one of the world’s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products.

In a board room or a trading room, businesspeople across the country must have one common asset: good negotiating skills. Whether hammering out a deal with another company or merely trying to get a new client, knowing how to negotiate is quintessential to success.

According to master negotiator Roger Dawson, author of Secrets of Power Negotiating, anyone can become a good negotiator, as long as they follow a few simple techniques:

TACTIC ONE: Never say yes to their first offer

Just a week after declaring record results for its second quarter, Western Coal is back in the news after an approach from Walter Energy, Inc, a US producer and exporter of hard coking coal for the global steel industry, about a possible “strategic business combination.”

The combination proposal contemplates a plan of arrangement transaction whereby Western shareholders would receive a mixture of cash and Walter shares valued at $11.50 per Western share.

Irish convenience foods group Greencore has announced it will merge with UK-based rival Northern Foods to form a new company called Essenta.

The 50-50 merger will create a company with sales of £1.7 billion (€2 billion) and 17,000 staff, with projected synergies of £40 million a year.

It is expected that the new company will achieve annual savings in overheads of £15 million; about £20 million in purchasing; and £5 million in tax efficiencies, with at least half of the cost benefits expected to be achieved within 12 months.

North America might be reluctant to end its love affair with gasoline, but a new Canadian venture is ready for when it inevitably happens, as Alan Swaby learns.

Lithium, apparently, is one of the most abundant minerals on earth. It has a role to play in the manufacture of ceramics and glass as a flux, in the foundry business as a casting aid, and as the core ingredient of lithium grease. But before the advent of mobile phones and laptop computers, not one in a hundred people would have heard of it.

Gold prices remain at high levels, which is great news for mining companies. But mines are fundamentally a depleting resource and as reserves decline at one mine, another must be found to take its place. Andrew Cormier at Northgate Minerals Corporation tells Andrew Pelis how his company has dealt with the forthcoming closure of its flagship operation, the Kemess South Mine in British Columbia, and is building a new cornerstone, the Young-Davidson Mine in northern Ontario.

North American Gem is setting its sights on becoming a major coal mining presence in Kentucky. The path to that door leads through a rare type of coal that is used in the production of silicon chips and solar panels, as Keith Regan learns.

As phase II of the Queenston plaza redesign nears completion, traveling between the US and Canada is set to become a whole lot easier. Gay Sutton talks to Lew Holloway, general manager of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, about the challenges of doing construction work at an active border crossing.

Nyrstar has long been one of the world's top zinc smelters, but found itself facing the prospect of future supply and margin pressures. That prompted a move upstream into direct zinc ore mining, a process that Keith Regan learns also involves rebuilding the trust of employees, communities, partners and regulators.