Business news with words alliance+shares. 25 news.

Shares in Alliance & Leicester soared 57p to 705p today after reports that takeover talks started by Spain's Banco Santander last month are 'not dead'

Shares in Alliance & Leicester bank leapt almost 9% after reports that the mortgage lender had held talks with Spain's Banco Santander, the owner of Abbey.

ALLIANCE Group, controlled by oil entrepreneur Musa Bazhaev, and billionaire OAO Polymetal owner Suleiman Kerimov, plans to bid for a stake worth US$622 million in OAO Polyus Gold, Russia's biggest miner of the metal. ZAO KM Invest, the manager of jointly held assets of Mikhail Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin, is selling the 7.4-percent stake because they plan to pursue investments separately, Bloomberg News reported. Their wrangling has delayed Polyus's plans to spin off its least-developed mining assets. Polyus has dropped 9.5 percent this year in London. "Polyus shares have had a very mediocre year, while gold has risen rapidly," said Yury Vlasov, an analyst with Renaissance Capital in Moscow. "The common feeling is Polyus will start to copy that dynamic." Alliance's ZAO Alliance-Prom unit has sent a letter to KM Invest, Moscow-based Alliance said yesterday in a statement. Nafta Moskva Ltd, Kerimov's holding company, also sent a letter, Anton Averin, head

LG.Philips LCD Co., the world's second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, agreed to buy Hannstar Display Corp. shares for NT$3.17 billion as part of an alliance.

LG.Philips is buying 3.42% of Taiwan's Hannstar to forge an alliance and secure a stable procurement of flat panels.

CHINA electronics giant Suning Appliance Co ended its plan on acquiring Beijing Dazhong Electrical Appliance Co because the two sides failed to reach agreement in some areas, the Shenzhen-listed company announced yesterday. "The company and its financial adviser have negotiated with Dazhong and it has estimated the acquisition costs and risks, but the two sides can't reach agreement on key terms," the country's second-largest home appliance retailer told Shenzhen Stock Exchange. "Since Suning insists on a stable operation it decided to scrap the acquisition plan," the Nanjing-based retailer said. Suning spokesman Zhu Jiagui said he had yet to get details about the statement. Suning's shares dropped 8.13 percent to 62.80 yuan (US$8.52) in Shenzhen yesterday. The company announced in April that it was in talks with Dazhong after its major rivals - China Paradise Electronics Retail Ltd and Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd - formed alliance. Suning

Shares in Alliance & Leicester jumped as it revealed impairment charges that were lower than many had feared, while rival Bradford & Bingley also rose after it said it would meet profits forecasts

Alliance & Leicester shares rallied this morning after revealing that its fall-out from the credit crunch had been limited to a ?55m profit writedown and the prospect of slower growth in 2008.

Shares in Alliance & Leicester, the UK mortgage bank dogged by worries about its exposure to the credit crunch, jumped 13 per cent this morning despite its warning that operating profits will be lower than forecast this year.

FOR months now David Bennett, the new chief executive of Alliance & Leicester (A&L), has been fighting a losing battle against worried investors. They are convinced the mortgage bank will reveal significant write-downs in the value of its holdings in so-called toxic loans. Bennett has been doing his best to put down these rumours, but the shares continued to fall even after A&L said in October that it didn’t need emergency funding from the Bank of England and was funding its lending at “around” London interbank rates. That statement should have sent the bears running for cover

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- General Moly said Friday that ArcelorMittal SA will buy about 8.3 million shares in the company through a private deal as a part of their strategic alliance. ArcelorMittal will pay $8.50 a share for a total of about $70 million. After the equity investment, ArcelorMittal will own about 12.7% of General Moly's outstanding shares as of Nov. 19. On Monday, General Moly issued a release that said ArcelorMittal was buying about 8.2 million shares for a 12.6% stake, and the updated release on Friday corrected those figures.

SHARES in Proton Holdings Bhd, Malaysia's state-owned car maker, posted a record one-day decline in Kuala Lumpur trading yesterday. The plunge came after the government ended alliance talks with Volkswagen AG and General Motors Corp, Bloomberg News reported. Proton slumped 19 percent after Malaysia's state investment unit on Tuesday said it scrapped a year of talks to give the car maker more time to reverse five quarters of losses. A strategic alliance can be considered later "if necessary," the agency said in a statement. "They don't have the resources to make it on their own," said Raymond Tang, who oversees US$5.4 billion at CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd in Kuala Lumpur. "The company needs new technology from a partner." A turnaround now hinges on Proton's ability to develop models and increase sales in overseas markets including China, Iran and Thailand. While sales in Malaysia for a new car rolled out in August beat company

Rio Tinto is considering offering joint ventures with BHP Billiton as an alternative to BHP’s proposed $140 billion takeover, The Telegraph reported. The offer is part of a preliminary defense plan — called Project Manchester — against BHP’s proposed three shares for one bid for Rio, the newspaper said. Rio and BHP, which earlier this month made [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares in European banks that are particularly sensitive to funding conditions weakened on Wednesday, with Allied Irish Bank shares down 5.8%, Anglo Irish Bank shares down 5.8% and Alliance & Leicester shares down 2.7%. These banks underperformed the rest of the European banking sector on Wednesday, where firms such as UBS and HSBC Holdings gained ground as investors welcomed HSBC's profit update in a sector where valuations are cheap, according to some analysts.

BEAR Stearns Cos and China's CITIC Securities Co yesterday agreed to invest US$1 billion in each other in an alliance to pool their businesses in Asia. CITIC will buy the equivalent of six percent of New York-based Bear Stearns's shares as the banks collaborate to develop financial products and services in China, the companies said in a statement yesterday. They will also form a Hong Kong-based joint venture to bring together their operations outside of the Chinese mainland. Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest United States securities firm, fell as much as 37 percent this year in New York trading. The collapse of the subprime mortgage market hit the company harder than larger rivals, pushing two of its hedge funds into bankruptcy and eroding fixed-income revenue, said Bloomberg News. Chief Executive Officer James "Jimmy" Cayne has been trying to invest in China, where the firm lags behind US rivals, for more than a year. "This groundbreaking alliance will give Bear

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Bear Stearns and China's CITIC Securities on Monday announced an agreement in principle in which each firm would invest $1 billion in the other. This alliance will also include sharing management expertise and technology to develop new capital markets products and businesses in China and establishing an exclusive joint venture combining the existing businesses of both companies in the rest of Asia, the companies said. Bear Stearns will contribute its businesses in Asia, including its operations in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, and CITIC Securities will contribute its operations in Hong Kong. CITIC Securities will acquire approximately $1 billion of 40-year convertible trust preferred securities that will convert, on a fully diluted basis, to approximately 6% of Bear Stearns' shares. Bear Stearns will seek regulatory approval with China to acquire a similar stake in CITIC Securities for about $1 billion through a six-year convertible debt security and five-year options to acquire additional shares.

A&L shares fall after Deutsche Bank analysts publish a sell note on the mortgage bank saying they expected growth to slow

The Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corporation will buy about $357 million worth of new shares from the Pioneer Corporation to form an alliance and jointly develop DVD players, car electronics and displays.

The panic that has gripped financial stocks in the past two days of trading receded this morning as shares in Northern Rock, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley all recovered ground after the Chancellor's move to guarantee all savings buoyed up confidence in the banking system.

Alliance & Leicester shares led a rebound in banking stocks this morning as some investors took the opportunity pick up the shares at much cheaper prices.