No fresh Vodacom bid for GT

(FIN24) - Vodacom, SA's biggest mobile network, operator has not tabled a fresh offer for a controlling stake in Ghana Telecoms (GT) but couldn't rule out adding a sweetener to its initial $500m (R3.5bn) bid.

"I've read reports from Ghana to that effect [of a higher offer]," said Dot Field, head of group communications at Vodacom. "But the fact is that we have not tabled a fresh offer for GT."

She added, however, that Ghana remained a market in which the group was "firmly" interested... as indicated in our annual report".

Initial bids for a 51% stake in GT were rejected by transactional advisors who argued that they were way below the government's asking price. Bidders included Portugal Telecom and France Telecoms.
 

 

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Withering food stocks send European shares lower

(Reuters) - European shares ended down on Friday after briefly touching their lowest level since December 2006, led by weaker food and beverage stocks, as concern the U.S. subprime crisis was far from over darkened investors' mood.

Among major movers, Unilever Plc/NV (UNc.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) fell 5 percent following a Morgan Stanley downgrade of the consumer goods giant, dragging down others in the sector.

The DJ Stoxx European food and beverage index fell 3.8 percent, marking its worst sell off since June 2003, with Nestle (NESN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) declining 4.3 percent, Danone (DANO.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) 3.2 percent lower, and Pernod Ricard ( PERP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) down 4.1 percent.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down 0.55 percent at 1,428.89 points, regaining some ground after touching the mark of 1,420.90, its lowest since early December 2006. It closed down 1.9 percent on the week.

"We had a year-end party and now we've got a proper hangover," said Susanne Lahmann, equity strategist at German bank Bremer Landesbank.

 

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U.S. Stocks Decline; American Express, Tiffany Fall on Outlooks

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell as lower-than- estimated profit forecasts at American Express Co. and Tiffany & Co. heightened concern the economy is shrinking and sent the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to its worst start since 1991.

American Express, the third-largest U.S. credit-card network, fell in New York Stock Exchange trading after its projection for first-quarter earnings trailed analysts' estimates by 3.2 percent. Tiffany, the second-biggest luxury jewelry seller, lost the most in more than three years after holiday sales growth shrank to 8 percent. Countrywide Financial Corp. retreated after Bank of America Corp. agreed to buy the mortgage lender for less than its market value.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 9.68, or 0.7 percent, to 1,410.73 as of 12:52 p.m. in New York, extending its decline this year to 3.9 percent. The benchmark for U.S. equities has dropped for three straight weeks, the longest streak since August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 163.79, or 1.3 percent, to 12,689.3. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 28.17, or 1.1 percent, to 2,460.35. About two shares declined for every one that rose on the NYSE.

``There was this perception that the upper-end consumer was resistant to the economy, and that may be starting to roll over,'' said Matthew Kaufler, who helps manage $2.6 billion at Clover Capital Management in Rochester, New York. ``Housing has been in recession, the financial institutions are also feeling it, and now you have signs that the consumer is starting to buckle. We seem to be in a rolling recession.''

 

Read more at Bloomberg