Business news for Sun, 23 Dec 2007 & with words agreed+million. 3 news.

UNITED Rentals Inc, the largest construction-equipment rental company in the United States, lost a bid to force a US$4-billion takeover by Cerberus Capital Management LP when a judge ruled the agreement allowed the buyer to withdraw its offer. Delaware Chancery Court Judge William Chandler ruled on Friday that United Rentals officials should have known that Cerberus executives believed they had a right to pull out of the deal at any time as long as they paid a US$100 million fee. United alleged that Cerberus's RAM Holdings buyout entities agreed in July to pay US$34.50 per share for United Rentals' stock, and reneged on the deal in November amid weakened US credit markets. The stock has been trading in the low-US$20 range. United Rentals fell US$3.69 to US$17.91 on Friday. "The board of directors and management team of United Rentals will consider its alternatives under the circumstances, and they continue to believe strongly in United Rentals' future prospects,"

RANK Group Ltd, owned by New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart, has agreed to buy Alcoa Inc's packaging and consumer businesses for US$2.7 billion in cash to expand in the United States. Alcoa expects to sell the consumer and packaging businesses, which last year generated 10 percent of sales and three percent of after-tax operating income, by the end of the March, the company said. Hart, 52, will gain control of units, including Reynolds Wrap foil in the acquisition. Rank Group, based in Auckland, has made about US$7 billion of acquisitions over two years in the US, New Zealand and Europe to become the world's second-largest drink-carton maker. Last year, Hart bought International Paper Co's beverage-packaging unit for US$500 million and Neuhausen, Switzerland-based SIG Holding AG for US$2 billion. "He's certainly building quite a packaging empire," Stephen Walker, principal of Walker Capital Management Ltd in Auckland, told Bloomberg News. "This extends the

AXA, France's largest insurer, has agreed to acquire a 36.7-percent stake in Reso-Garantia, Russia's second-largest insurance firm, for 810 million euros (US$1.16 billion). The investment is expected to add to Axa's earnings within three years, the Paris-based company said in a statement. The insurer will have the option to buy the rest of the company through calls exercisable in 2010 and 2011, according to Bloomberg News. Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service gave Dresdner Bank AG, the banking arm of insurer Allianz SA, regulatory approval to buy a controlling stake in Reso on August 14. The next day, news service Vedomosti reported that Dresdner had decided instead to hold onto its Reso shares as collateral for a loan to its holding company. On May 29, Reso-Garantia said it will sell a 20-percent stake in the first public offering of stock by a Russian insurer. The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development said earlier that it was buying a 10-percent stake in