Europe

Adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to the end of March was £461 million, up eight percent on the £428 million the company posted a year ago. Meanwhile, revenue rose by 17 percent to £2.33 billion.

Overall retail sales rose by 15 percent and contributed 70 percent of total revenue. While footfall remained weak, the number of customers buying goods, and their average spend, both increased.

Lying in close proximity to Gelibolu, along the coast of the Dardanelles, one will find Gelibolu Shipyard. A present day reminder of the historic links this part of Europe has to the maritime sector, Gelibolu Shipyard is a family owned newbuilding yard founded in 1975. One half of Aksoy Shipping Group, it specialises in the building of small-to-medium sized sea and river going vessels for its ship chartering sister company, Ali Riza Aksoy Denizcilik.

Following reports that General Electric (GE) may wish to acquire Alstom, the maker of TGV high-speed trains, Siemens approach the board of the French company to signal what it called its “willingness to discuss future strategic opportunities".

It has since been reported in French newspapers that Siemens is offering Alstom half of its train-making business and some cash in return for Alstom’s business that makes turbines for the energy industry, according to the report.

Diamond and adamant are two words coming from a common Greek root meaning unalterable, an appropriate name for the hardest substance in the natural world. It's their resistance, their durability, that has made them the ultimate jewel. Rough diamonds as mined are unprepossessing, but once they have been cut and polished to refract light from a myriad facets their beauty is breathtaking. But cutting and polishing is no easy matter as the only substance hard enough to impress diamond is – more diamond.

Founded in the 10th Century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th Century and is today the country’s most populous city, with figures as of October 2013 recording it having an urban population of over 1.23 million and a metropolitan population of 1.97 million. The cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark, the city has played host to considerable urban and cultural development in the last several decades which has been facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure.

The purchase will result in the creation of the world’s biggest cement maker with combined sales of more than €32 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Lafarge shareholders will receive one Holcim share for each Lafarge share they own.

In order to ease competition concerns surrounding the deal the two companies have agreed to sell various assets. The companies forecast total annual savings from joining forces to be around €1.4 billion. The combined firm will be based in Switzerland.

A survey commissioned by the Bank of Scotland questioned 100 companies in the industry and found that expectations of employment growth had increased since last year, with 69 percent of executives questioned proclaiming their optimism about their business’ growth prospects in 2014/2015.

The joint venture between Babcock and US firm Fluor was chosen by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The 14 year contract covers twelve nuclear power sites, including Hinkley, Sizewell and Dungeness, and is estimated to be worth as much as £7 billion.

NDA chief executive John Clarke said the joint venture was chosen for its "successful track record and extensive nuclear experience".

Born in 1998 following the merging of two Générale des Eaux subsidiaries, Compagnie Générale de Chauffe and Esys Montenay, it was in 2000 that Dalkia opened up its capital to the French electricity provider EDF, following an agreement between the provider and Vivendi Environmental. Representing the Energy Services Division of Veolia Environment, Dalkia is one of Europe’s leading energy companies, boasting operations in 35 countries and achieving managed revenues of €8.9 billion in 2012.

Beginning life in the early 1960s as a general contractor for medium to large scale projects occurring within Greek territory, AKTOR would go on to expand rapidly during the subsequent decades making it one of the leading players in the Greek construction sector by the mid-1990s.