Europe

Veolia Water has agreed to sell the UK regulated water activities of Veolia Environnement to Rift Acquisitions for a total of £1.2 billion.

Veolia Water is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paris-based Veolia Environnement, which is currently working to reduce its net debt.

In 2011, the French company announced plans to divest €5 billion of assets before the end of 2013. This divesture marks the first significant step in that programme, bringing the company’s net debt down by around £1.1 billion as a result of the sale.

The French multinational food group Danone has taken control of Centrale Laitière, Morocco’s leading dairy products company.

Danone raised its stake in Centrale Laitière to 67 per cent by acquiring part of SNI's shareholding for a total €550 million.

Centrale Laitière’s products are sold throughout Morocco. The company operates four production sites with around 4,000 employees, and in 2011 reported sales of 6.6 billion dirhams. The company is market leader in three core businesses: milk, fresh dairy products and cheese.

Maersk Oil, the petroleum arm of Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, is to drill a new exploration well on the Maja licence in the Danish North Sea.

The move comes after the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) granted Maersk a two-year extension to two licences in the region.

The Maja licence is situated near the Maersk Oil-operated Harald gas field and 40 kilometres north of the licences operated by the Danish Underground Consortium. The well will be drilled in water depths of 50 metres and to a total depth of around 5,000 metres.

UK-based oil giant BP has agreed to sell its interests in the Jonah and Pinedale upstream operations in Wyoming to Houston, US-based LINN Energy LLC.

WABCO Holdings Inc, a tier-one supplier to the commercial vehicle industry, has entered into a long-term supply agreement with Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA).

WABCO will supply its MAXXUS air disc brake technology for series production on DTNA's trucks starting in July 2012.

Pioneered in Europe, MAXXUS represents the lightest and highest performing single-piston air disc brake for North America's commercial vehicle industry, reducing the vehicle's overall weight, which boosts fuel efficiency and enables increased transport payload.

Rolls-Royce has won a contract worth more than £1 billion to deliver reactor cores for the UK’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet.

The contract from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) includes regeneration of Rolls-Royce’s current submarine reactor core manufacturing facility in Derby, UK. Rolls-Royce said it will introduce the latest technology and manufacturing techniques to deliver increased efficiencies, completing a phased rebuild to provide a “leading-edge manufacturing facility with the highest standards of safety”.

Netherlands-based construction company Ballast Nedam has joined forces with Microbeton to form a new joint venture, Concrete Valley, it has been announced.

The new venture, which will focus on specialised solutions in the concrete industry, consists of two companies, Waco Lingen Beton (a Ballast Nedham company) and Microbeton, which develops and manufactures lightweight ferrocement products.

This is a crucial weekend for Greece, Europe and the rest of the world.

Greece goes to the polls on Sunday for the second time in six weeks, with the distinct possibility that the government that emerges from the election may reject the austerity conditions attached to the bailouts it has received from the Eurozone.

Premier Foods, the UK’s largest food producer, has reached an agreement to sell its vinegar and sour pickles business to Mizkan for £41 million.

The sale, which includes the Sarson’s, Haywards and Dufrais brands, is expected to complete by the end of July 2012.

The agreement marks the latest stage in the company’s strategy to prioritise investment into its eight ‘Power Brands’ and divest selected non-core businesses.

French manufacturer Soitec has announced the completion and grid connection of the largest concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar power plant in Italy.

Located in the Belpasso municipality in Sicily’s Catania province, the 1.17 MW-peak (MWp) facility is now ready to generate clean, reliable electricity for the local power grid.

The utility-scale plant will generate enough electricity to supply approximately 300 homes each year and is expected to offset more than 125 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.