Europe

Plans have been announced for the development of a new low-carbon power plant west of Edinburgh.

Summit Power Group, a Seattle-based developer of low-carbon electric power projects, has entered into an agreement with National Grid and Petrofac to seek funding for the development—which would include full-chain, commercial-scale carbon capture and storage—at the Port of Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth.

Wessex Exploration has received a surprise takeover offer from French oil major Total, sending the Bristol-based company’s shares rocketing by over 30 per cent.

Total said it is looking to buy Wessex, which has interests in the south of England and offshore Africa, for around £71 million.

Dutch logistics giant TNT Express is to be acquired by its US-based rival UPS for €5.16 billion, it has been announced.

The two companies said the combined entity will create a global leader in the logistics industry with annual revenues of more than €45 billion.

TNT Express delivers close to one million consignments, from documents and parcels to palletized freight, each day. The company operates road and air transport networks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. In 2011, the company had revenues of €7.25 billion.

GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest drugs maker, has agreed to divest several of its over-the-counter (OTC) European brands to Omega Pharma for €470 million (£391 million).

The brands being divested include Lactacyd, Abtei, Solpadeine, Zantac, Nytol and Beconase, which together generated sales of approximately £185 million in 2011. The divestment is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2012, subject to regulatory approvals.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said it expected the net cash proceeds from the transaction to be approximately £310 million.

Providence Resources has announced that its Barryroe well has delivered the first commercial flow rate of oil offshore Ireland.

Barryroe is located at a depth of 100 metres in the North Celtic Sea Basin, approximately 50 kilometres offshore southern Ireland. Oil and gas is successfully flowing from the well at double the rate expected.

Providence holds an 80 per cent interest in Barryroe, with Lansdowne Oil & Gas holding the remaining 20 per cent.

Jaguar Land Rover has announced the creation of 1,000 new jobs at its Halewood Operations manufacturing facility near Liverpool.

The new positions are to support ongoing demand for the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Freelander 2, and will take the workforce at Halewood to almost 4,500.

France Telecom-Orange and Publicis Groupe have partnered with Iris Capital Management to invest in technology companies, it has been announced.

Orange said the partnership would create one of Europe’s premier venture capital investors in the digital economy. Together, Orange and Publicis Groupe will contribute €150 million to the initiative; when added to Iris’ pre-existing funding commitments from investors, this will result in a total investment capacity of more than €300 million.

UK engineering giant GKN is said to be at advanced stages of talks to buy the aerospace unit of Volvo.

According to a report in the UK’s Sunday Times, GKN could pay up to £800 million for Volvo Aero, which manufactures aircraft engines and components.

GKN has plants in Bristol and Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Its aerospace business, which manufactures aircraft components, is its second biggest division, with sales last year of £1.5 billion.

Part of GKN’s strategy is to expand in aerospace.

Dutch construction firm Ballast Nedam has reported a strong performance in its 2011 results, released today.

The company reported operating profits of €19 million, with net profits of €9 million on revenues of €1.4 billion.

Ballast Nedam said it performed well considering the bleak market conditions, increasing competition and price pressure, a situation it said would persist over the coming years.

Excellent results were achieved on several large multi-year projects and in the niche markets, the company said.

Netherlands-based EADS, the owner of Airbus, has today reported better-than-expected results for the full year 2011.

Despite what it called a “volatile macro-economic context”, in 2011 EADS continued to grow and to improve financial performance, particularly thanks to commercial momentum backed by strong air traffic figures.

EADS’ order book in 2011 stood at a record €541 billion; and revenues amounted to €49.1 billion, up seven per cent from a year earlier.