Europe Approves Aid to Greece; Bayer Settles Biotech Rice Litigation

Arthi Gupta
04 Jul, 2011
New York City

The European indexes traded higher after the European lenders approved the next tranche of aid to Greece. Bayer agreed to pay $750 million to settle biotech rice litigation. ASSA ABLOY sold Lorentzen & Wettre to ABB for SEK 750 million.

[R]2:30 PM Frankfurt – The European indexes traded higher after the European lenders approved the next tranche of aid to Greece. Bayer agreed to pay $750 million to settle biotech rice litigation. ASSA ABLOY sold Lorentzen & Wettre to ABB for SEK 750 million.[/R]

Asian and European stocks traded higher after euro-zone finance ministers unanimously approved to release the next tranche of financial aid to Greece.

Markets in Asia closed higher on the back of the largest weekly increase in the U.S. indexes in two years. The benchmark indexes in Japan and Korea gained more than 1%, in Shanghai added 1.8% and in India increased 0.5%.

The euro area finance ministers approved the release of a new loan of €12 billion for Greece by July 15. This is the fifth tranche of the current Greek Loan Facility and has the approval of the IMF Board.

Standard & Poor''s said that the two French proposals for the extension of maturity of Greek government bonds could be considered as “partial payment of loss.”

Euro-zone producer price inflation increased 6.2% annually in May after rising 6.7% in April, according to data published by the European Union''s statistics agency Eurostat.

In Paris CAC-40 Index declined 10.07 or 0.25% to 3,997.35 and in Frankfurt DAX index edged higher 5.02 or 0.07% to 7,424.46.

Bayer Settles Biotech Rice Litigation

Bayer CropScience agreed to pay $750 million to resolve claims submitted by U.S. long-grain rice growers in the biotech rice litigation. The announcement settles lawsuits that were filed, beginning in 2006, against the Bayer CropScience unit of Bayer by about 11,000 farmers in five U.S. states.

Bayer’s contamination of the U.S. rice supply caused rice farmers serious financial harm and put the U.S. rice export market in jeopardy.

ASSA ABLOY Sells Lorentzen & Wettre to ABB

ASSA ABLOY signed an agreement with ABB to sell Lorentzen & Wettre, part of the former Cardo group for SEK 750 million on a cash and debt free basis.

Lorentzen & Wettre manufactures and sells process equipment for the pulp and paper industry.

Gainers & Losers

Allianz Se fell 0.25% to €97.19 after the largest insurance company is to reinvest €300 million of Greek bonds into new securities, according to news agency reports that cite company spokesperson Christina Kroos.

RWE AG gained 1.09% to €39.24 after the German utility is considering a possible £5 billion sale of its Npower unit in the UK, according to reports.

Nestlé SA dipped 0.1% to Sfr52.55 after the world''s leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness company is in talks to buy Chinese snack and candy maker Hsu Fu Chi International, according to media reports over the weekend.