Sale decision looms for ABN
THE Dutch Supreme Court will this week decide if ABN Amro must ask shareholders to vote on the sale of its American arm in a decision that will have a big impact on the takeover battle for the bank.
The ruling comes after a lower court said ABN should be forced to put the $21 billion (£10.5 billion) sale of LaSalle, its US bank, to Bank of America to a shareholder vote.
Barclays and a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) are engaged in a fierce battle to win control of ABN. In April, Barclays agreed a 63 billion all-share deal to buy ABN. However, the deal is conditional on LaSalle being sold to Bank of America.
The RBS consortium, which includes Santander of Spain and Fortis, the Belgian group, has proposed a 71 billion counter offer which depends on it buying LaSalle.
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Overseas search for skills
ENGINEERING and technology companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find skilled staff in the UK and are looking overseas to fill vacancies, according to a survey from the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
The IET found that while demand for skilled workers was rising, their availability was not. Of the 500 firms questioned, 80% said they planned to recruit experienced staff, yet nearly three-quarters said they were having problems finding them. Half of the firms said they had recruited from overseas in the past 12 months to fill specific skills shortages.
Bid activity for Congo miners
THE Central African Mining and Exploration Company (Camec), a mining group founded by former England cricketer Phil Edmonds, is planning a bid for Katanga, a Canadian miner.
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Katanga said on Friday it had been advised by Camec that it intended to make a formal offer that would value it at about $1.6 billion. Both groups have mining interests in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The king of DIY gamers
TOBY ROWLAND, son of the late Tiny Rowland, the colourful founder of Lonrho, will this week launch Mygame.com, a website that allows ordinary users to make their own computer games on his King.com site.
Players can pick a game template, personalise it with text, sounds and a photo, and start playing. The games can be shared on social networks, played within MySpace profiles, sent via e-mail, and posted on blogs.
In February, Rowland launched an online game based on American Idol, the talent show. If a player does well, the avatar starts to look, act and sing better, and moves to the next level. The top prize is two tickets to the American Idol final and a share of a $30,000 jackpot.