On Monday, it was
announced that Statoil would sell its 24% stake in Gassled,
a joint pipeline venture, to Solveig Gas Norway for $3.2 billion.
Shares in the Norwegian oil giant were trading down almost 2%. Daimler and Rolls Royce gained a majority stake in Tognum, now with a combined holding of 60%. The price
offered by the auto firms valued the German engine maker at $4.9
billion. Shares in Tognum were only marginally affected, while
Daimler and Rolls Royce fell by 0.8% and 0.24% respectively. French
investment house Eurazeo purchased a 45% stake in Moncler,
an Italian fashion brand for around $620 million. Shares in the buyer
were down almost 0.4%. Also that day, Goldman Sachs agreed
to sell Litton Loan Servicing to Ocwen Financial Corporation
for $263 million. This sale comes as a result of controversy over the
bank’s involvement with foreclosures in the wake of the Subprime
Mortgage Crisis. The seller was down 1% by market close and the buyer
was down 1.6%.
The following day, the
Greek Government sold 10% of Hellenic Telecom Organisation
to Deutsche Telekom for $585 million in an effort to reduce
its massive national debt. Hellenic, also known as OTE, was down over
6%, while shares in the German telecoms giant were up 0.5%. The
midweek saw WellPoint, a large health insurer, agreeing to
buy CareMore, a care provider for the elderly, for $800 million. The
buyer’s share price was down almost 1%. On Thursday, the Taiwanese
regulator said that it would support AIG’s sale of Nan
Shan Life Insurance to a consortium led by Ruen Chen Investment
Holding for $2.2 billion. Shares in the global insurer were boosted
by almost 3% on this news.
On Friday, Citic Securities
agreed to buy a 20% stake in the research and brokerage units of Credit Agricole for $374 million. The Chinese brokerage was
up 0.08%, while the French bank was down 1.3%. Also that day, a
Namibian court gave the ok to Wal-Mart to takeover Massmart
for $2.4 billion. The ruling was the result of an appeal by the
Namibian regulator to have conditions attached to the supermarket’s
acquisition. Despite the positive ruling, the world’s largest
public corporation was down 1.7% as week’s end.
