Important news from Kerri

APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS:N— Mitsubishi Corp to acquire a stake in Czech auto car body maker Sungwoo Hitech from South Korea’s Sungwoo Hitech Co Ltd (approved Oct. 17)— Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners to acquire a stake in international health club operator Virgin Active (approved Oct. 14)— A joint venture led by Gores Group LLC to acquire clothing retailer Mexx from Liz Claiborne Inc (approved Oct. 17)NEW LISTINGS:— Dutch conglomerate Philips Electronics NV to acquire lighting product company Indal (notified Oct. 17/deadline Nov. 23)EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES:— German sugar company Suedzucker to acquire a 25 percent stake in British commodities trading company ED&F Man (notified Sept. 19/deadline extended to Nov. 9 from Oct. 24 after Suedzucker offered commitments)FIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINEOCT 20— Dutch bank AEGON’s Spanish unit to acquire a 50 percent stake in Spanish life insurer Cajaburgos Vida, part of Banca Civica (notified Sept. 15/deadline Oct. 20/simplified)OCT 26— German property operator ECE and German retailer Metro to set up a joint venture (notified Sept. 21/deadline Oct. 26)— U.S.-based Seagate Technology to acquire Samsung Electronic’s hard disk drive business (notified April 19/deadline extended for the second time to Oct. 26 from Oct. 10)— U.S. equipment maker Caterpillar to acquire German maker of gas and diesel engine maker MWM Holding GmbH (notified March 14/deadline extended to Oct. 26 from Sept 16 after Commission opens in-depth investigation and despite commitments offered)OCT 28— U.S. company Dow Chemical and Japanese trading house Mitsui to set up a Brazilian joint venture (notified Sept. 23/deadline Oct. 28/simplified)— German conglomerate Siemens to acquire Dutch engineering company NEM Holding (notified Sept. 23/deadline Oct. 28)OCT 31— Vitol Investment Holdings, a unit of oil trader Vital , and U.S. energy company ArcLight to acquire joint control of Luxembourg-based Petro Lux (notified Sept. 26/deadline Oct. 31/simplified)NOV 3— Belgian building materials group Etex to acquire German peer Lafarge’s gypsum assets in Europe and South America (notified Sept. 27/deadline Nov. 3)— U.S. healthcare company Johnson & Johnson to acquire Swiss medical devices maker Synthes Inc (notified Sept. 27/deadline Nov. 3)— Private equity group TPG Capital LP to acquire a stake in Danish online brokerage Saxo Bank from Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo (notified Sept. 27/deadline Nov. 3/simplified)NOV 7— Danish dairy coperative Arla Foods to acquire German dairy cooperative Allgauland (notified Sept. 15/deadline extended to Nov. 7 from Oct. 20 after Arla offered commitements)NOV 8— German fruit producer Agrana and Austrian equipment maker RWA to combined their subsidiaries into a joint venture (notified Sept. 30/deadline Nov. 8)NOV 10— U.S. cleaning and pest-control services company Ecolab to acquire water treatment services company Nalco Holding (notified Oct. 4/deadline Nov. 10)NOV 14— German industrial services company Buchen Industrieservice to acquire German technical services company ThyssenKrupp Xervon (notified Oct. 6/deadline Nov. 14/simplified)NOV 15— German natural gas supplier Verbundnetz Gas Aktiengesellschaft to sell a 25.1 percent stake in VNG Austria to CE Gas Marketing & Trading (notified Oct. 7/deadline Nov. 15/simplified)NOV 17— U.S. agribusiness company Cargill to acquire KoroFrance, the holding company of Dutch animal feed maker Provimi from private equity firm Permira (notified Oct. 11/deadline Nov. 17)— French company Caisse des Depots et Consignations to acquire 50 percent of a Paris real estate from a subsidiary of French insurer Axa (notified Oct. 11/deadline Nov. 17/simplified)— French power and transport engineering group Alstom and Bouygues subsidiaries Bouygues Immobilier and Exprim SAS to form a joint venture (notified Oct. 11/deadline Nov. 17/simplified)NOV 30— U.S. technology company Western Digital Corp to acquire Hitachi’s hard disk drive business (notified April 20/deadline extended for the fourth time to Nov. 30 from Nov. 9 after Western Digital offered remedies)— U.S. conglomerate General Electric, Russian energy producer and importer Inter Rao Ues and Russian engine maker United Engine Corporation to set up a joint venture (notified Sept. 30/deadline Nov 9/simplified)DEC 13— Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext to merge (notified June 29/deadline extended to Dec. 13 from Aug. 4 after Commission opens in-depth probe)GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESSDEADLINES:The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case.Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days.SIMPLIFIED:Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified — that is, ordinary first-stage reviews — until they are approved.

* Suzuki: VW must sell back stake if it fails to act* Suzuki: may consider other steps to prompt action from VWBy Mayumi NegishiTOKYO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp said on Friday it has served Volkswagen with a notice of breach of contract, demanding the German company give it access to hybrid technology promised under a two-year old partnership pact.Unless it does so, Suzuki’s biggest shareholder must sell back its stake and quit the alliance, it said.The latest exchange in accusations deepens a feud between the two carmakers. VW last month accused the Japanese firm of breaching their agreement by procuring diesel engines from Fiat and is demanding it end that cooperation.”The whole point of the partnership was to gain access to key technologies, such as those for hybrids and environment technologies,” Executive Vice President Yasuhito Harayama said at a news conference in Tokyo.”If VW can’t honour that, it must return Suzuki’s shares immediately.”Suzuki, which has said it has yet to hear a proper response from VW about a proposal to end their partnership, is demanding action within weeks, Harayama said, adding that Suzuki may consider other steps if VW ignores the notice.VW bought a 19.9 percent interest in Suzuki for about 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in January 2009.Billed as a partnership of equals, the tie-up was meant to bolster VW’s presence in India for small cars and give Suzuki access to technology it could not afford to develop on its own but the partnership has so far failed to deliver any meaningful cooperation.”If this situation is not resolved quickly, it does not mean that Suzuki is in trouble, but it is in neither companies’ interest for this uncertainty to drag on for too long,” said Harayama.Suzuki’s deal with VW is not the first time it has tied itself to one of the big global automakers.In 1998, Suzuki joined a strategic partnership with General Motors , which took a 17.4 percent stake in the Japanese firm. That unravelled in 2006 when the U.S. car company sold most of its stake as it scrambled for cash amid ballooning losses.

Emerging market countries are working on ways to contribute money rapidly to expand the effective firepower of the International Monetary Fund, with the aim of increasing its role in fighting the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.TRICHET SAYS ECB HAS DONE ALL IT CANThe European Central Bank has reached the limits of what it can do to support financial markets and it is now up to governments to grapple with a stubborn debt crisis, the ECB’s outgoing president, Jean-Claude Trichet, said.TORY DONOR’S LINKS ADD PRESSURE ON FOXMichael Hintze, the millionaire donor to Britain’s Conservative party who indirectly financed Adam Werritty, the controversial associate of the defence secretary Liam Fox, has tens of millions of dollars invested in defence companies through his hedge fund, CQS.CABLE HITS TREASURY OVER ‘RED TAPE CHALLENGE’British business secretary Vince Cable’s attempt to whittle away at the regulatory burden on business is being frustrated by the Treasury’s unwillingness to take part in his “red tape challenge” according to business department insiders.GERMAN BANKS ATTACK RECAPITALISATION PLANGermany’s entire banking industry has joined forces to resist any compulsory recapitalisation of banks, urging Berlin to resist European moves to impose higher capital requirements across the board.INSURERS BLAME APPLE AS FRAUDULENT CLAIMS RISEThe readiness of Apple to replace blocked or faulty iPhones with new smartphones is helping to fuel a big rise in fraud, insurers have warned.PRU CAUGHT UP IN SEARCH FOR DIRECTORSPrudential has hired Zygos, the City headhunters, to find two new non-executive directors as part of an ongoing shake-up of its board aimed partly at addressing investor dissatisfaction over last year’s bid for AIA , the pan-Asian life insurer.POLYUS EYES UK RELOCATION AHEAD OF FLOATPolyus Gold has moved to redomicile in the UK by early November, paving the way for Russia’s biggest gold miner to become a premium-listed FTSE 100 candidate by the end of the year.

“Our focus now rests solely on ensuring that our efforts as owners contribute in a meaningful way to the exciting future that lies ahead for Hulu,” the owners said in a joint statement.Reuters reported last month that the auction of online video site Hulu has been slowed due to conflicts over complicated digital rights, a wide bid-ask gap and the lack of commitment to sell by Hulu’s owners, among other things.This is the second time its owners have fashioned a full or partial exit strategy that has failed. After nearly six months of planning, the owners ditched an initial public offering last December to raise up to $300 million.

The work, which involved extracting and purifying DNA from the remains of Black death victims buried in London’s “plague pits,” is the first time scientists have been able to draft a reconstructed genome of any ancient pathogen.Their result — a full draft of the entire Black Death genome — should allow researchers to track changes in the disease’s evolution and virulence, and lead to better understanding of modern-day infectious diseases.Building on previous research which showed that a specific variant of the Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis) bacterium was responsible for the plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, a team of German, Canadian and American scientists went on to “capture” and sequence the entire genome of the disease.”The genomic data show that this bacterial strain, or variant, is the ancestor of all modern plagues we have today worldwide. Every outbreak across the globe today stems from a descendant of the medieval plague,” said Hendrik Poinar, of Canada’s McMaster University, who worked with the team.”With a better understanding of the evolution of this deadly pathogen, we are entering a new era of research into infectious disease.”Major technical advances in DNA recovery and sequencing have dramatically expanded the scope of genetic analysis of ancient specimens, opening up new ways of trying to understand emerging and re-emerging infections.Experts say the direct descendants of the same bubonic plague still exist today, killing around 2,000 people a year.A virulent strain of E. coli bacteria which caused a deadly outbreak of infections in Germany and France earlier this year was also found to contain DNA sequences from plague bacteria.For this study Poinar’s team analysed skeletal remains from Black Death victims buried in London’s East Smithfield “plague pits,” which are located under what is now the Royal Mint.By focusing on promising specimens from the dental pulp of five bodies, which had already been pre-screened for the presence of Y. pestis, they were able to extract, purify and enrich the disease’s DNA and at the same time reduce the amount of background non-plague DNA which might interfere.Linking the 1349 to 1350 dates of the skeletal remains to the genetic data allowed the researchers to calculate the age of the ancestor of Y. pestis that caused the mediaeval plague.Poinar, whose work was published in the journal Nature, said the team found that in 660 years of evolution, the genetic map of the ancient organism had only barely changed. “The next step is to determine why this was so deadly,” he said.Johannes Krause Of Germany’s University of Tubingen, who also worked on the study, said the same approach could now be used to study the genomes of all sorts of historic pathogens.”This will provide us with direct insights into the evolution of human pathogens and historical pandemics,” he said in a statement.

Borrower Deutsche Hypothekenbank AGIssue Amount 100 million euroMaturity Date October 27, 2014Coupon 3-month Euribor + 30bpIssue price ParDiscount Margin 3-month Euribor + 30bpPayment Date October 27, 2011Lead Manager(s) Deutsche BankRatings Aaa (Moody’s)Listing HannoverFull fees UndisclosedDenoms (K) 50Governing Law GermanNotes Launched under issuer’s debt issuanceprogrammeISIN DE000DHY3335For ratings information, double click onFor all bonds data, double click onFor Top international bonds newsFor news about this issuer, double click on the issuer RIC,where assigned, and hit the newskey (F9 on Reuters terminals)Data supplied by International Insider.

Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Lil Wayne and country music group The Band Perry were nominated three times, followed by artists such as Bruno Mars and Beyonce with two nods each.Besides Adele, other artist of the year contenders are Gaga, Wayne, Swift and Perry, whose album “Teenage Dream” two months ago achieved the rare distinction of having five singles reach the top of the Billboard’s pop songs chart. Perry also will perform at the key music industry awards.In other rock/pop music categories, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and the U.S. rapper Pitbull will vie for favorite male artist, while Maroon 5, OneRepublic and the dance music group LMFAO are nominated for favorite band. Besides Adele’s hit “21”, favorite pop album nominations were shared by Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and Rihanna’s “Loud.”In rap/hip hop categories, Wayne, Nicki Minaj and Kanye West earned nods for favorite artist. “Watch The Throne” by West and Jay-Z, “The Carter IV” by Lil Wayne, and “Pink Friday” from Nicki Minaj were nominated for favorite album.Country music nominees included Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley and Jason Aldean for favorite male artist and Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift for favorite female artist.Chris Brown, Beyonce, Rihanna and Kelly Rowland were all nominated in the soul and R&B categories, and in the indie rock arena, The Black Keys, Foo Fighters and Mumford & Sons will compete for favorite artist.Organizers said that along with Perry, the rapper Pitbull will sing and other performers will be announced at upcoming dates. As in previous years, winners will be determined by online voting.