The Star Online: Business

Transocean says Icahn acquired 1.56% stake, seeks more
CVC, RBS raise US$290mil in Samsonite stake sale-term sheet
Indian owned Jaguar to add 800 new UK jobs on soaring Chinese demand

Transocean says Icahn acquired 1.56% stake, seeks more

Posted: 13 Jan 2013 06:42 PM PST

Published: Monday January 14, 2013 MYT 10:42:00 AM

NEW YORK: Transocean Ltd has disclosed that billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has acquired a 1.56 percent stake in the offshore rig contractor and is looking to increase that holding, according to a statement on its Web site.

Icahn is seeking regulatory approval to acquire shares worth more than $682.1 million, according to the statement. If he gets approval, Icahn would become one of Transocean's largest shareholders with just over 5 percent ownership in Transocean, based on its closing stock price of $54.09 on January 11.

Transocean's biggest shareholder is Capital World Investors, a division The Capital Group Companies Inc, which owned 5.12 percent of Transocean as of October 15, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Icahn's move comes less than two weeks after Transocean agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle U.S. government charges over BP Plc's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2012 . Transocean employed nine of the 11 workers killed in the accident. - Reuters

CVC, RBS raise US$290mil in Samsonite stake sale-term sheet

Posted: 13 Jan 2013 06:39 PM PST

HONG KONG: Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and Royal Bank of Scotland sold a combined $290 million stake in Hong Kong-listed luggage maker Samsonite International, a term sheet seen by Reuters showed.

The 138.3 million shares were sold at HK$16.20 each, a 4.9 percent discount to Samsonite's Friday's close of HK$17.04, the terms showed. That would put the total deal at HK$2.24 billion, with about 65 percent of the shares sold by CVC and the remainder by RBS .

Samsonite's shares fell 1.6 percent in early trading in Hong Kong to HK$16.76, compared with a 0.3 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng index <.hsi>, but were still above the selldown price.

The latest sale meant CVC reduced its stake in Samsonite to about 9.7 percent and RBS to 5.1 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Goldman Sachs was the sole underwriter on the selldown.

Luxembourg-based Samsonite listed in Hong Kong in 2011 in a $1.25 billion IPO. CVC and RBS jointly raised about $821 million by selling into the IPO, although Samsonite's shares languished following the deal.

CVC and RBS have agreed to a 90-day lock-up during which they will refrain from selling any more shares into the market, the terms showed.

($1 = 7.7518 Hong Kong dollars) - Reuters

Indian owned Jaguar to add 800 new UK jobs on soaring Chinese demand

Posted: 13 Jan 2013 06:35 PM PST

LONDON: Jaguar Land Rover plans to create 800 new jobs at its Solihull factory in central England as demand for its premium cars rockets in China and elsewhere.

For the first time, demand from China outstripped that of British carmaker JLR's home market, with sales in China in 2012 rising more than 70 percent to 71,940 cars.

JLR, owned by India's Tata Motors, said on Sunday that total global sales rose 30 percent to over 350,000 vehicles.

JLR said earlier this month that its outlook for 2013 was positive after UK vehicle sales rose almost 20 percent in 2012.

Its next biggest markets are the U.S., Russia and Germany.

The expansion at the Solihull plant would support the introduction of new models in 2013, the company said.

Last week, Japanese carmaker Honda cut around 800 jobs at its plant near Swindon due to falling demand for its vehicles across mainland Europe - Reuters

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 13 Januari 2013