Business news for Sun, 23 Dec 2007 & with words company+deal. 4 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

WHAT a difference a few years make. Back in early 2006 when a United Arab Emirates-based company was merging with Britain's P&O, Americans were whipped into a xenophobic frenzy when it became known that the deal would transfer management of six US...

BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defence contractor, has increased its presence in the lucrative US market with the acquisition of an American technology company and a key supplier of logistics to the Department of Defense (DoD).