Europe

In 2010, Brussels saw the launch of the Viage Entertainment Center. Managing director Andrew Webb tells Andrew Pelis how the casino and entertainment venue has quickly established itself as a successful venture and benefactor to the local community.

Brussels has long been held up as a doyen for international business. While that remains the case, a recent splash of glamour has seen entertainment become en vogue with the arrival last year of the Viage Entertainment Center.

Royal Dutch Shell is receiving bids for stakes in four of its Nigerian oil fields, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Companies bidding include Essar, Afren and Perenco, said the report. Essar is bidding with Nigeria’s Energy Equity Resources, and French company Perenco has teamed up with Switzerland’s Addax & Oryx Group and Oando. The UK’s Heritage Oil is also said to be bidding alongside the Nigerian contractor Shoreline Energy International.

Private equity firms are also thought to have expressed interest in the stakes.

Chinese telecomms equipment maker Huawei has changed its mind about the controversial acquisition of US server manufacturer 3Leaf, after national security concerns had been raised in the US.

Huawei purchased intellectual property from 3Leaf in May 2010 for $2 million but the deal caused concern in the US government, as it had not been cleared through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Huawei initially rejected the CFIUS's recommendation to voluntarily divest from acquisition, but has now had a change of heart.

UK drinks company Diageo has announced the acquisition of Turkish spirits firm Mey Icki Sanayi & Ticaret for £1.3 billion.

Mey is one of the largest alcohol producers in Turkey, controlling around 80 per cent of the market for the Turkish national drink, raki. It also controls around 65 per cent of the country’s vodka market.

The deal will give Diageo access to Mey’s extensive distribution network as well as its production facilities. The Istanbul-based company currently has 50,000 retail outlets across Turkey.

France’s Lafarge and UK mining company Anglo American have announced they are to combine their tarmac and cement businesses in the UK.

The 50-50 joint venture will see the two companies merge their cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete, asphalt and contracting businesses in the UK—currently operating as Tarmac UK and Lafarge Cement UK.

The combined sales of the two businesses in 2010 was £1.8 billion.

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, International Petroleum Investment Co., is to take control of Cia. Espanola de Petroleos SA, Spain’s second-largest oil company, by buying out shareholder Total.

The deal, worth €3.97 billion, will see IPIC buy Total’s 48.8 per cent stake and purchase the remaining Cepsa stock at €28 a share. IPIC already holds 47 per cent in the Spanish company.

French pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis has agreed to buy US biotech company Genzyme for €14.8 billion, following months of wrangling over price.

The deal will give Paris-based Sanofi valuable access to the market for drugs that treat rare diseases.

Patents on some of Sanofi’s bestselling drugs have recently expired, leading to a downturn in sales. Its blood thinning drug Plavix, for example, is expected to face generic competition next year. Last year, Plavix accounted for about nine per cent of Sanofi's total sales.

Rolls-Royce has signed a long-term service contract with Emirates worth £1.4 billion.

Under the terms of the TotalCare agreement, Rolls-Royce technicians will maintain the Trent engines of 70 Airbus aircraft that Emirates is due to acquire over the next few years.

The deal follows Rolls-Royce’s $1.2 billion contract signed in November to service engines on a further 48 Emirates aeroplanes. The number of Emirates aircraft now being serviced under the TotalCare scheme is 128.

Aker Solutions has received a letter of intent from Statoil for the engineering, procurement and construction of a subsea workover system for the Vigdis North East development on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Vigdis North East is an oil and gas development situated in water depths of around 280 metres in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. Aker’s work will include provision of a complete range of components for open water workover operations.