Europe

Strong international trading in the second quarter of this year has helped to boost half-year profits at UK supermarket giant Tesco.

Sales in Asia jumped by 12 per cent, European sales grew by nine per cent and US sales rose sharply by 45 per cent during the second quarter.

UK sales in the first quarter were almost flat, growing by just 1.1 per cent. However in the second quarter sales picked up, growing by four per cent.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis has launched an $18.5 billion bid for US biotech company Genzyme Corp.

The bid is said to be aimed at capturing Genzyme’s drugs for high cholesterol and its lucrative treatments for rare genetic disorders.

Sanofi's now hostile $69-per-share offer values the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company at $18.5 billion—the same as its friendly offer made privately to Genzyme’s management in July. Genzyme rebuffed that approach.

The Kraljevica Shipyard is the oldest continuously-running shipyard in the world. Sales manager Dragan Badzek talks to Andrew Pelis about the past, present and future for Croatia’s shipbuilding industry.

Shares in Rockhopper Exploration jumped 7.8 per cent today following an update on flow tests at the potentially world class Sea Lion field in the North Falklands basin.

The UK-based company said that during an 18 hour test, the well flowed for sustained periods at over 2,000 barrels per day.

The group added that had it not been for several constraints on the well, it could have flowed at around 4,000 barrels per day.

With more optimal location, significantly higher rates could be achieved from future production wells, the company said.

The world's biggest offshore wind farm off the UK’s Kent coast is being officially opened later today.

Built at a cost of £800 million, the 100 turbines will be able to produce 300 megawatts of electricity—enough energy per year to power the equivalent of more than 200,000 homes. The 380 foot-tall turbines are spread over an area of more than 35 square kilometres.

Up to 341 turbines will be installed at the wind farm over a four-year period.

France Télécom has bought a 40 per cent stake in Méditel, Morocco’s second-largest mobile operator, for €640 million, marking the first step in its strategy to boost its presence in African markets.

Méditel (Médi Télécom) is the second biggest global telecoms operator in Morocco, with licences for fixed, mobile and 3G telephony. It has been active in the telecoms sector since 1999.

With over 10 million mobile subscribers and a market share of 37 per cent, Méditel achieved sales of over 5.3 billion dirham (€465 million) in 2009.

GDF Suez and its partners have secured $1.3 billion in financing for the Barka 3 and Sohar 2 independent power projects in Oman.

The greenfield natural gas-fired power plants, which will each have a capacity of 744 MW when operational, carry a total investment cost of $1.7 billion.

Together the plants will add almost 1,500 MW to Oman’s existing capacity of around 3,600 MW. Their power output will be sold under two separate 15-year power purchase contracts to the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company, who will be the sole off-taker.

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is to almost double its stake in the Norwegian Stratfjord field in a deal that will boost its expansion efforts in the North Sea.

The acquisition, worth £144 million, will increase Centrica’s oil and gas reserves by 29 million barrels of oil equivalent. It will provide the UK-based company with an additional 172 billion cubic feet equivalent of gas and oil reserves, and an incremental 70 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and oil production in 2010.

British aero engineer Hampson Industries has won its largest ever tooling contract, worth $53 million (£34 million).

The contract is to design and manufacture lightweight mandrel tools for carbon fibre lay-up for a major commercial aerospace programme.

Although the West Midlands-based company did not name the customer, it is widely believed to be Boeing, the world's second largest commercial plane maker.

Trading electronically makes great strategic sense for buyers and suppliers alike; but technical complexity can be a barrier to realising the benefits of enhanced supply chain visibility, as David Grosvenor explains.