Alcoa closes deal to buy Billiton metals refining stake in Suriname

September 21st, 2009 Covidien closes sale of sleep productsNEW YORK — Medical device maker Covidien said Monday it completed the sale of its sleep diagnostics assets to Embla Systems. Financial details of the previously announced deal were undisclosed.

September 8th, 2009 NEW YORK - Major Wall Street indices gained Tuesday as price increases for oil and metals including gold fuelled a rally in commodity and energy shares. The dollar hit a 2009 low against the euro, helping the commodity price hikes.

August 5th, 2009 News Corp boosts stake in Sky DeutschlandNEW YORK — News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has boosted its stake in German pay TV company Sky Deutschland AG to 39.96 percent. Sky Deutschland was formerly known as Premiere AG.

July 24th, 2009 Fiat wins EU approval for Chrysler stakeBRUSSELS — Fiat SpA won EU regulatory approval Friday to take a 20-percent stake in struggling U.S. car maker Chrysler.

July 24th, 2009 Hearst buys added 20 pct stake in Fitch for $427MNEW YORK — Hearst Corp. is buying an additional 20 percent stake in Fitch Group for $427 million.

May 13th, 2009 MUMBAI - Realty major DLF announced Wednesday its promoters would sell close to 168 million shares or about 10 percent of their stake in the company to infuse capital in its subsidiary DLF Assets Ltd (DAL). The company which would hope to raise about Rs.39.7 billion as per the scrip's Tuesday's closing price of Rs.236.25 at the Bombay Stock Exchange also said that the money would be used to buy out D.E Shaw's stake in DAL.

April 30th, 2009 Chrysler to idle plants until Fiat deal doneNEW YORK — Chrysler says it will temporarily stop most of its vehicle production until its deal with Italy's Fiat is complete. The shutdown is effective Monday and could last up to two months.

April 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - IT services exporter Tech Mahindra, which is taking over the fraud-hit IT giant Satyam Computer Services, Monday reported a net profit of Rs.221.3 crore for the fourth quarter of 2008-09. The company had reported a loss of Rs.207.07 crore in the corresponding period in 2007-08 after it accounted for one-time expense of Rs.440 crore, an official statement said.

April 24th, 2009 Safran to buy 81pct stake in GE Security unitNEWARK, Calif. — French aerospace and defense manufacturer Safran Group has agreed to buy an 81 percent stake in GE Security Inc.'s homeland protection business for $580 million.

April 23rd, 2009 MUMBAI - India's largest private sector company, the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries, Thursday reported a 1 percent drop in net profits for the quarter ended March 31 at Rs.3,874 crore (Rs.38.74 billion or $774.8 million). The turnover of the oil refining to retail major also dipped nearly 24 percent at Rs.29,073 crore for the fourth quarter in what had been a difficult year for oil refining companies in the wake of high crude prices and lower margins.

April 22nd, 2009 MUMBAI - Tech Mahindra Wednesday announced its open offer for a 20-percent additional stake in Satyam Computer Services at Rs.58 per share, after buying 31 percent equity in the IT bellwether following a global auction. The offer to all existing shareholders of the Hyderabad-headquartered Satyam opens June 12 and closes July 1, the company told the regulators.

March 8th, 2009 MUMBAI - Sterlite Industries India, a subsidiary of London-based Vedanta Resources run by industrialist Anil Agarwal, Saturday said it was acquiring the assets of the bankrupt US copper mining firm Asarco for $1.7 billion. Apart from making an outright cash payment of $1.1 billion, Sterlite will also pay the Tucson-based mining, smelting and refining company $600 billion over nine years, of which $460 million will be in the terminal year.

January 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's ONGC Videsh may buy a stake of up to 40 percent in an oil block in Kazakhstan, an oil ministry official said Monday. ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp., may get a share of 30-40 percent in the Satpayev block in the oil and mineral resources rich Central Asian country, the official official said.

January 6th, 2009 NEW YORK - The largest US aluminium maker, Alcoa, announced Tuesday that it would cut its global workforce by 13,500 jobs, or 13 percent, by the end of the year amid the widening recession. Alcoa will also slash an additional 1,700 contractor positions.

December 24th, 2008 NEW DELHI - Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Thursday commissioned its second refinery in Gujarat, which has a capacity to process 580,000 barrels of oil per day. Announcing the launch, Reliance Petroleum, a subsidiary of RIL, said the entire refinery complex at Gujarat's Jamnagar will attain full capacity shortly.