Wall Street ends up on solid job figures
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks started a traditionally healthy month on strong footing on Friday with solid jobs figures, but the S&P 500 may need help to break to new multi-year highs.
Small business hiring remains steady in March: NFIB
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The pace of hiring by small businesses was steady in March from February, though the number of companies planning to create new jobs fell, a survey published on Friday showed.
Putin rides first Russian hybrid car to see Medvedev
NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (Reuters) - Avid car lover and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin drove Russia's first gasoline-electric hybrid car on Friday to visit political partner President Dmitry Medvedev.
Investing Tools
Vimpelcom goes global with $6 billion Wind deal
AMSTERDAM/MOSCOW |
AMSTERDAM/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vimpelcom won a long-running battle for control of Wind Telecom when shareholders voted for a deal to diversify into new markets and take on huge debt.
The more than $6 billion cash-and-shares bid for control of emerging markets specialist Orascom Telecom and Italian group Wind was backed by 53.3 percent of Vimpelcom's voting shares, the Russian mobile phone group said on Thursday.
"It is a good transaction, it is a growth plan. I have been with the company for 12 years. We started with GSM in Moscow and today we became a global player," chairman Jo Lunder told reporters.
Chief Executive Alexander Izosimov said he expected the deal to complete in the first half, subject to financing.
Vimpelcom has already received regulatory approval from Ukraine, Pakistan and Italy, the only countries where this was a necessary condition for the closing of the deal, spokeswoman Elena Prokhorova said.
The deal had been opposed by Norwegian group Telenor, which has a 36 percent voting stake and fought a battle with fellow major Vimpelcom shareholder Alfa Group to have it blocked.
In the event more than 60 percent of minor shareholders voted against the deal, which analysts say will hamper growth thanks to the $20 billion of debt, but the opposition was not enough to overcome Alfa Group and its supporters.
Telenor shares rose more than 2 percent after news it lost the vote at a specially convened meeting in Amsterdam, with analysts saying the company would benefit from a resolution to the conflict.
The shares were up 1.7 percent at 1342 GMT, having shed 8.5 percent in the year to date.
"It is a relief that it is over," said Tore Toenseth, analyst at Argo Securities.
"The shareholder conflict is settled, the transaction will be completed and now it is back to basics with the focus returning to operations. That is what is needed for both Vimpelcom and Telenor shares to start climbing again."
Lunder said relations between Vimpelcom's shareholders could be improved. "I think we will rebuild the relationship with Telenor."
BETTER OFF
Telenor, which claimed the deal made no strategic or financial sense, said it remained committed to Vimpelcom, Russia's third biggest mobile company, but would pursue arbitration proceedings in an effort to avoid dilution of its stake as a result of the deal.
"Even though we believe Vimpelcom would have been better off without this deal, we will now continue to work in the best interests of Vimpelcom and its shareholders," Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard said.
Follow Reuters