Cement groups Lafarge, Holcim in $50 billion-plus merger talks
PARIS/ZURICH (Reuters) – The worlds’ two largest cement makers, Lafarge and Holcim , said they are in merger talks, flagging what could be Europe’s biggest tie-up of the year to date creating a company with a stock market value of over $50 billion.
U.S. probing high-speed trading, attorney general says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department is investigating high-speed trading for possible insider trading, Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers on Friday.
Under-fire finance chief quits Tesco
LONDON (Reuters) – Tesco’s under-fire finance chief Laurie McIlwee quit on Friday days before Britain’s biggest retailer is expected to announce another decline in profit and following months of speculation about his future.
Gasoline-loving spiders cause Mazda car recall for second time
(Reuters) – For the second time in three years, Mazda Motor Corp has issued a recall for Mazda6 sedans in North America because of a spider that likes the smell of gasoline and weaves a web that blocks a vent in the engine.
GM files 200,000 pages of documents about recall to safety agency
DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co said it has submitted most of the answers that U.S. safety regulators sought from the automaker about a defective ignition switch linked to at least 13 deaths.
Exclusive: Nestle and Fresenius home in on Danone Medical – sources
LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The field of bidders for Danone’s Medical Nutrition business has narrowed to German healthcare group Fresenius and Swiss food company Nestle, two people familiar with the process told Reuters on Friday.
Airbus drops behind Boeing in first-quarter jet orders
PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus dropped behind U.S. rival Boeing in the race for new airplane deals in the first quarter after a pair of wide-body order cancellations, while Boeing finalized a major Canadian sale, company data showed on Friday.
UK’s RBS poaches new finance chief from Credit Suisse
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Scotland has poached Credit Suisse’s Ewen Stevenson for its new finance director, to help restore the health of the part-nationalized bank which lost 8.2 billion pounds last year.
GlaxoSmithKline sacks some China staff for malpractice: source
LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline, facing allegations of bribery in China, has dismissed some employees in the country over failure to comply with expenses rules, a person familiar with the situation said on Friday.
Pilots’ strike to cost Lufthansa 35-75 million euros
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Lufthansa said the three-day walkout by pilots that has effectively grounded Germany’s largest airline would cost it in the region of 35-75 million euros, although it would take a few more days to calculate the final amount.
