BP to pay $7.2B for stake in India's RelianceIn its second large deal since the start of the year, U.K. oil firm BP PLC said it will spend $7.2 billion to buy a 30 percent stake in oil and gas blocks controlled by Reliance Industries Ltd. in India. The British firm recently reached a $7.8 billion agreement with Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft to drill in the Arctic. BP and Reliance Industries, India's largest private company, said the deal announced Monday covers 23 oil and gas production-sharing contracts as well as formation of a joint venture for the sourcing and marketing of gas in India.
'Stalking horse' bid made for BlockbusterHome video chain Blockbuster Inc., in bankruptcy, put itself up for sale after creditors were unable to agree on a recapitalization plan. The Dallas-based company said that it has submitted a plan for an auction process to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. A holding company formed by four if its largest creditors -- Monarch Alternative Capital, Owl Creek Asset Management, Stonehill Capital Management and Varde Partners -- has submitted an opening "stalking horse" bid of $290 million. The offer is intended to create a floor for future bids, though if none come in, the company would end up in the hands of those creditors.
For $4.75B, BHP joins U.S. shale gas businessBHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company, agreed to buy Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s Fayetteville assets in central Arkansas for $4.75 billion in cash, entering the U.S. shale gas business. BHP, also Australia's largest oil and gas company, will add more than 10 trillion cubic feet of gas resources through the purchase, J. Michael Yeager, the chief executive officer of BHP's petroleum division, said in a statement from Chesapeake.
Best Buy to close stores in China and TurkeyBest Buy Co. will close its nine Best Buy-brand stores in China and two in Turkey and restructure operations in those markets, the company said in a statement to Business Wire Monday. The Richfield-based retailer expects savings of as much as $70 million by 2013 from the closures and other actions, the statement said.
BMW to offer battery-powered cars in 2013German luxury car builder BMW said in Munich that it would create a sub-brand known as BMW i to market a line of battery-powered cars starting in 2013, and gave more details on how the vehicles made of carbon fiber and aluminum would look. BMW also said that at least two models, not just one, would be introduced in 2013: a four-seat, battery-powered vehicle intended for urban areas and known as the i3; and a hybrid sports car, the i8, that the company promised would be able to reach nearly 100 kilometers an hour (60 mph) in five seconds, while burning no more fuel than a subcompact.
Spain talks of 'problematic' loansSpain's central bank on Monday classified 46 percent of the exposure that the country's savings banks had to the construction and real estate sectors as "problematic." But Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez, the governor of the Bank of Spain, insisted that such a risk level -- 100 billion euros ($137 billion) of the 217 billion-euro total -- did not endanger the Spanish financial sector as a whole.
News Corp. to buy Murdoch daughter's firmNews Corp. said Monday that it had reached an agreement in principle to buy the Shine Group, the production company run by Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth. The agreement assigns Shine, which produces hit TV shows like "The Biggest Loser" and "MasterChef," an enterprise value of about $673.5 million. Analysts see the widely anticipated deal as the latest effort by Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive, to bring three of his children back into the News Corp. empire.
FROM NEWS SERVICES
