Archive for December, 2009
SINGAPORE (Reuters) –
A group of financiers is trying to put a U.S. mattress maker now under bankruptcy court protection into play by encouraging Chinese bidders to top an already arranged offer for Simmons Bedding Co. (SIMBB.UL), the Wall Street Journal reported late on Saturday.
Success looks unlikely for the eleventh-hour effort to encourage a Chinese bidder to challenge a deal already worked out between Simmons, its creditors and new investors, the report said, quoting sources involved in the effort.
It is the first attempt by the government-linked Chinese financiers behind the Simmons push, as well as the Pennsylvania-based bankruptcy lawyer trying to find similar deals for them, to help Chinese bidders shop for acquisitions in U.S. bankruptcy courts, the newspaper said.
Simmons discounted the move.
"In response to recent rumors ... Simmons wants to reiterate that it is not contemplating any alternate bids in China or elsewhere nor has Simmons authorized any agent in China to solicit any such bids," the report quoted William S. Creekmuir, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Simmons, as saying in a written response to questions.
In November, Simmons, maker of the Beautyrest mattress and other bedding products, filed for bankruptcy protection and said it expects to be sold to two buyers in a transaction valued at roughly $760 million.
The Journal report said details of the pre-packaged reorganization plan, designed to reduce the company's debt $1 billion by more than half, were translated into Chinese and posted on the website of a government-owned registry in the southern city of Guangzhou where large corporate and government assets are put on sale.
The idea was to encourage potential Chinese bidders to offer Simmons creditors a better deal than the one presented to the bankruptcy court, and generate fees for themselves if such a bid were to proceed, the report said, citing people involved.
(Editing by Jerry Norton)
BERLIN (Reuters) –
Banks must provide sufficient credit and governments in the euro zone must reign in public finances to support a global economic recovery in 2010, the President of the European Central Bank (EBC) said on Sunday.
In comments made to the Bild am Sonntag weekly newspaper, Jean-Claude Trichet added that recovery from the financial crisis required concerted effort to offset joblessness.
"Banks must perform their central role in the supply of credit to the economy... Handling the consequences of the crisis for the labor market and public finances represents an additional challenge."
"Budget deficits in the euro area must be reduced by 2011 at the latest -- in some countries as early as 2010 -- in order to maintain confidence in public finances," he said.
(Writing by Brian Rohan; Editing by Matthew Jones)
ABU DHABI (Reuters) –
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday in a push to win one of the world's biggest nuclear power contracts.
Both countries want to strengthen economic ties in "peaceful nuclear energy" among other areas such as renewable energies or reducing carbon emissions, the official UAE news agency WAM said after Lee's arrival.
The UAE is expected to award the contract estimated to be worth $40 billion to build several nuclear reactors "possibly early next week," industry sources said.
A South Korean consortium of Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) (015760.KS), Hyundai Engineering and Construction (000720.KS), Samsung C&T Corp (000830.KS), and Doosan Heavy Industries (034020.KS) is in the running to win the largest-ever energy deal of the Middle East.
Other bidders include a consortium of General Electric Co (GE.N) and Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp (6502.T), and a French consortium led by EDF () and GDF Suez () and including Areva () and oil group Total().
Lee is scheduled to hold a summit meeting with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan during his two-day visit, the South Korean presidential Blue House said in a statement.
"It remains unclear whether South Korea will win the final contract to build nuclear power plants and President Lee's visit to the UAE is part of summit diplomacy to win the final ticket in the bidding," Lee's office said.
The French consortium was initially seen as a front-runner for the deal but it recently appeared to be losing ground to the Korean.
On the Korea Exchange earlier this week, shares of Korea Power Engineering (052690.KS) and Doosan Heavy Industries (034020.KS) rallied on expectations for the deal, analysts said.
IBK Securities analyst Yoon Jin-il said the contract is expected to be split in three stages with the initial order to be worth about $5 billion, but the first-phase winner is likely to take home the remaining two.
Work is expected to begin in 2012, UAE state news agency WAM has said. The UAE is the world's third-largest oil exporter, but it is planning to build a number of nuclear reactors to meet an expected need for an additional 40,000 megawatts of power.
South Korea's commerce and energy ministry said on Monday that it would focus on the nuclear power sector in 2010 and step up work on a plan to develop nuclear reactors with indigenous technology, as it outlined next year's policy objectives.
(Reporting by Cho Mee-young and Jack Kim in Seoul and Ulf Laessing in Dubai and Amena Bakr in Abu Dhabi; editing by Andrew Roche)