On Monday, it was
announced that Alpha Bank and Eurobank would merge, creating the
largest lender in Greece; with assets totalling $212 billion. The
banks hope to strengthen their capital positions in the face of the
debt crisis. Both shares were boosted around 30%. AuRico Gold
purchased Northgate Minerals for $1.48 billion. This is the latest
in a string of such acquisitions in the face of soaring gold prices.
The buyer was down 18.5%, while Northgate rose 28%. The following day
saw further action in mining, as Macarthur Coal accepted a $5.2
billion bid from ArcelorMittal and Peabody Energy. The Australian
mining firm has been the target of several acquisitions recently, and
rose 0.4% upon its sale. ArcelorMittal and Peabody finished the day
up 4.7% and 3.1% respectively. Also that day, Investor Carl Icahn has
agreed to sell his $310 million stake in Lion’s Gate after a long
struggle between him and management in the company. The global
entertainment firm fell around 3%.
The midweek saw Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba merge their LCD businesses by working with a
government backed fund in an attempt to defend against increasing
foreign competition; with each of the Japanese electronics
manufacturers taking a 10% stake in the venture. Hitachi rose 1.2%,
while Sony and Toshiba rose 2.8%. On Thursday, IBM bought
Algorithmics, a risk analytics company for $387 million. Despite this
attempt to increase its presence in the financial services market,
the buyer dropped 0.9%.
