Greece, EU Agree on Austerity; Rolls-Royce, Daimler Secure 94% of Tognum

Arthi Gupta
24 Jun, 2011
New York City

The European indexes gained after European Union leaders agreed to extend more financial aid to Greece. NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse settled shareholder lawsuits by paying dividends of $910 million. Rolls-Royce and Daimler secured 94% of Tognum shares.

[R]1:30 PM Frankfurt – The European indexes gained after European Union leaders agreed to extend more financial aid to Greece. NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse settled shareholder lawsuits by paying dividends of $910 million. Rolls-Royce and Daimler secured 94% of Tognum shares.[/R]

World markets cautiously advanced after the European Union leaders pledged more financial aid to Greece on condition that the Greek parliament passes an austerity plan in the next two weeks.

Evangelos Venizelos, Greece''s new finance minister agreed with the EU and the IMF to new taxes to plug a €5.5 billion deficit in the austerity program. The program needs the parliament approval by July 3.

Europe’s political leaders are to gather again today in Brussels to discuss plans for further financial aid to Greece to avoid a default. Greece is not expected to seek funds from the private markets in August as yields on the 2-year bonds hover near 28%.

German business confidence improved unexpectedly in June, according to the results of a survey by Ifo. The business climate index rose 0.3 points to 114.5 in June from 114.2 in May.

In Paris CAC-40 Index gained 28.49 or 0.76% to 3,816.49 and in Frankfurt DAX index edged higher 49.51 or 0.69% to 7,198.95. For the week, the CAC-40 Index dipped 0.03%.

NYSE Euronex and Deutsche Boerse Settle Lawsuits

NYSE Euronext and Germany''s Deutsche Boerse AG have agreed to settle shareholder lawsuits on their merger deal, by paying about $910 million or €639 million in dividends this month, reports said.

The companies would pay 2 euros per Deutsche Boerse share or $1.37 per NYSE share after their planned merger is completed.

Rolls-Royce and Daimler Secure 94% of Tognum

Daimler AG and Rolls-Royce Holdings plc have secured 94.17% of shares in Tognum after their successful tender offer. During the extended offer period, further shareholders representing 35.82% of Tognum’s share capital have tendered their shares into the offer made by the companies’ joint venture, Engine Holding GmbH.

The final total of 94.17% also includes the 1.52% of the share capital that was acquired by the joint venture on the stock market during the earlier acceptance period.

Gainers & Losers

Air France-KLM SA surged 4.86% to €10.57 after crude oil price dropped 4.3% after the release of oil from the IEA member state reserves.

Evotec AG soared 4.94% to €2.53 after the German drug firm and Swiss healthcare company Roche Holding AG announced that they will jointly develop novel protein-activity based biomarkers for Roche''s oncology drugs under development.

Intesa Sanpaolo SpA plunged 7.2% to €1.65 after the Italian banking group said it sold 102.25 million shares in luxury company Prada SpA, representing around 4% of Prada''s capital. The bank currently has 25.59 million shares, constituting 1% of Prada.

Rio Tinto Plc rose 2.68% to 4,268.00 pence after the Anglo-Australian mining giant said its wholly-owned subsidiary Rio Tinto Jersey Holdings 2010 Ltd acquired a relevant interest in 99.76% of all the shares in Riversdale Mining Ltd., as at the end of the offer period for Riversdale.

Unilever Plc gained 1.29% to 1,966.00 pence after the consumer goods maker restructured its marketing to expand in emerging markets.