Europe

Cooper Standard has announced plans for a new manufacturing facility in Craiova, Romania, further expanding its global automotive body sealing and fluid handling businesses.

Headquartered in Novi, Michigan, Cooper Standard is a global supplier of systems and components for the automotive industry. Products include body sealing systems, fluid handling systems and anti-vibration systems.

Canary Wharf Group is to construct a new office building of over 500,000 square feet at Canary Wharf in London.     

Work on the substructure at 25 Churchill Place has already been completed, with construction of the 20-storey tower due to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

Canary Wharf Group has called the building of the tower “a symbolic milestone”, as it completes the development of the original Canary Wharf masterplan.

London-based oil and gas company Terra Resources has entered into a financial partnership with Hendon Energy Fund 2011 to develop an oil and gas concession in Russia.

Hendon has agreed to partner with Terra Resources to fulfil its funding commitments, which are estimated to be $90 million, for the development of the 85,000 acre oil and gas concession in Kalmykia.

Ireland’s PetroNeft Resources has announced a “significant” oil discovery in one of its two Russian licence areas.

The discovery was made at Sibkrayevskaya, in Licence 61 at Tomsk Oblast, Siberia.

PetroNeft holds a 100 per cent interest in Licence 61, a 4,991 square kilometre oil and gas licence; as well as a 50 per cent operating interest in Licence 67, which covers an area of 2,447 square kilometres.

Reporting its sixth consecutive profitable quarter, General Motors today announced second quarter net income attributable to common stockholders of $2.5 billion, an increase of over 90 percent on Q2 of 2010.

Revenue for the quarter ended 30 June 2011 increased $6.2 billion to $39.4 billion, compared with the second quarter of 2010. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) adjusted was $3.0 billion compared with $2.0 billion in the second quarter of 2010. There were no special items in either period.

Valiant Investments has announced that it has invested a further US$50,000 into Trilith Resources.

Valiant said that the funds will be used by UK-based Trilith to acquire natural resource projects in Zambia and Tanzania, with a principle focus on gold and copper mineralisation.

UK-based Valiant has now invested a total of $150,000 (approximately €104,000) into Trilith.

Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care has announced a $1.7 billion merger agreement with US-based Liberty Dialysis Holdings, Inc., the holding company for Liberty Dialysis and Renal Advantage.

Liberty Dialysis has annual sales of approximately $1 billion and operates approximately 260 dialysis clinics, although Fresenius has said that some facilities may need to be divested to secure regulatory clearance.

The deal is expected to close in early 2012, and is expected to be accretive to earnings in the first year after closing of the transaction.

UK-based banking and financial services group HSBC has announced the sale of 195 of its retail branches in the US.

The branches, primarily in Upstate New York, are to be sold to First Niagara Bank for approximately $1 billion (approx. £608 million).

As of 31 May 2011, the branches held approximately $15 billion in deposits, $15 billion in gross assets including $2.8 billion in loans and $4.3 billion in assets under management.

Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company and Canary Wharf Group have signed a deal with Shell International to redevelop the Shell Centre site on London’s South Bank.

The two companies have entered into a 50:50 joint venture, and will each contribute £150 million to secure the 5.25 acre site on a 999-year lease.

Canary Wharf Group will act as the construction manager for the project and will also be joint development manager with Qatari Diar.

UK engineering company GKN has agreed to acquire the all-wheel-drive (AWD) components businesses of Germany’s Getrag.

The businesses being acquired are known as Getrag Driveline Products and consist of Getrag Corporation—a joint venture with US-based Dana Corporation—and Getrag All Wheel Drive, a joint venture with Dana Holding Corporation and Sweden’s Volvo.