USA and Canada

The purchase from previous owner Sir Phillip Green is expected to see the Topshop and Topman brands continue their rapid expansion around the world. Leonard Green and Partners already has investments in a host of retail businesses, including fashion chain J Crew and food seller Whole Foods Market.

Flexible packaging and specialty paper manufacturer Packaging Dynamics Corporation has announced the acquisition of Groupe De Luxe.

Headquartered at its Montreal manufacturing base, with facilities in Toronto, Chicago and Saugerties, New York, De Luxe is a North American manufacturer of flexible packaging products for food service, bakery, supermarket, confectionery, dairy, and other specialty applications.

According to new research, currently available technologies could earn fuel savings of $26,400 per truck with a payback time of less than 18 months.

The report published today by Carbon War Room and Trimble, Road Transport: Unlocking Fuel-Saving Technologies in Trucking and Fleets finds that efficiency gains could also mitigate 624 million tons of CO2 by 2020 in the US alone, if applied only to class 8 trucks.

Equipment manufacturer Deere & Company has reported net income of $687.6 million, or $1.75 per share, for the fourth quarter ended 31 October 2012, up from $669.6 million, or $1.62 per share, for the same period last year.

For fiscal 2012, net income attributable to Deere & Company was $3.065 billion, or $7.63 per share, compared with $2.800 billion, or $6.63 per share, in 2011.

A vitally important asset in the portfolio of Yamana Gold, the Minera Florida mine continues to grow and evolve, 26 years since operations commenced.

Very much a pillar of Chile’s economy, the country’s mining sector has played an important role throughout the history of a nation that came into being some 10,000 years ago when migrating Native Americans settled in the long and narrow coastal strip of land that lies between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

In the deal which is valued at $500 million, BHP will sell its Ekati mine in Canada as well as its diamond marketing operations. The mine in question has produced in excess of three million carats of rough diamonds per year for the last three years.

Business manager Roberto Luna discusses the on-going development of the Sierra Gorda open pit copper mine project.

As well as having the distinction of being known as the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile is home to the Sierra Gorda project. “A large tonnage, open pit copper mine development,” explains business manager Roberto Luna, “it boasts deposits that total up to 2.2 billion tonnes of measured and indicated resources, and reserves amounting to some 1.3 billion tonnes.”

The growth and development in the extracting of oil from shale rock has been given as the primary reason for this, with the method providing the US with the ability to gain significantly more extractable oil resources. Furthermore, the IEA predicts that further progress in this field could lead to the US becoming all but self-sufficient in its energy needs by around 2035.

Boasted by the significantly higher revenues generated by its sports network, ESPN, and its cruise ship operation, the entertainment juggernaut revealed in a statement that group sales have risen by three percent to $10.78 billion. The company also highlighted that its theme parks division reaped the rewards of higher attendance figures at its Hong Kong, California and Paris locations.