Pharma company Baxter International (NYSE:BAX) said Friday it has agreed to sell its U.S. generic injectables business to London-listed Hikma Pharamceuticals (LSE:HIK) for US$112 million.
Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) has agreed to sell its interest in six Gulf of Mexico oil and gas fields for US$450 million as part of its portfolio restructuring campaign.
GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK, NYSE:GSK) and Amicus Therapeutics (Nasdaq:FOLD) said Friday they agreed to jointly develop and commercialize Amicus' Amigal, a drug currently in phase 3 trials for the treatment of Fabry disease, a rare inherited enzyme deficiency disorder.
Equipment delivery delays and adverse weather conditions in Russia’s Far East have forced Petropavlovsk (LON:POG) to cut its output forecasts yet again, pushing the share price down 4.5%.
Ferrexpo (LON:FXPO) has increased production significantly year-on-year, with more than 15 percent more iron pellets being produced in the year to date. In a monthly production update Ferrexpo said that October had the second highest production of 2010, with 891,000 tonnes of iron pellets produced.
Insurer Old Mutual (LON:OML) said that group funds under management rose 8% to £307 billion.
Consumer goods company Unilever (LON:ULVR) said that turnover rose 13.2% to €11.55 billion in the third quarter.
Engineering firm Invensys (LON:ISYS) said that orders increased 6% to £1.15 billion in the first half.
Hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG) said that pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 September declined from US$302 million a year ago to US$147 million.
RSA Insurance Group (LON:RSA) said that net written premiums increased 10% year on year to £5.5 billion in the third quarter.
The world’s largest miner BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) noted that announcement by the Canadian Minister of Industry Tony Clement that he is not satisfied at this time that the BHP Billiton offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of PotashCorp (NYSE:POT/TSX:POT) is “likely to be of net benefit to Canada.”
Morrison Supermarkets (LON:MRW) said that total sales excluding fuel were up 2.8% in the third quarter, while like for likes improved 1.3%. The outlook for the year remains unchanged.
Medical devices manufacturer Smith & Nephew (LON:SN) said Q3 revenues rose 4% to US$941 million.
Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) reported a third quarter operating profit of £726 million. Including an £858 million fair value of own debt (FVOD) charge, Q3 2010 operating loss was £132 million.
Intertek Group (LON:ITRK) has acquired Metoc PLC, a company that provides engineering and environmental consultancy services to the renewable energy infrastructure sector worldwide.
Oil and gas producer BG Group (LON:BG) has taken the Final Investment Decision approving implementation of the first phase of the Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas project following receipt of Australian Federal and State Government environmental approvals.
Engineering company Weir Group (LON:WEIR) said that profits for 2010 will be slightly ahead of its previous expectations and pre-tax profits will be in line with the first half.
BP (LON:BP) made a US$1.8 billion profit in the third quarter after posting a US$17.15 billion loss in 2Q.
Part-nationalised bank Lloyds (LON:LLOY) said that core income growth, margin improvement, integration savings, funding progress and balance sheet reduction all remained on target and that it was confident that it would deliver a good financial performance for the current financial year.
Insurer Aviva (LON:AV) reported worldwide sales of £35.9 billion for the first nine months of 2010, marking a 5% year on year improvement.
Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB) said net revenues in the third quarter rose 11% to £2.11 billion, while earnings per share jumped 18% to 58.4 pence.
Imperial Tobacco (LON:IMT) released its final results, reporting a 6% rise in revenues to £28.18 billion. Pre-tax profits soared 124% to £2.12 billion.
Admiral Group (LON:ADM) said its UK car insurance operation continued to benefit from positive market conditions in the quarter to 30 September as vehicle count grew by 28% year-on-year to over 2.3 million, while premium rates increased.
Defence contractor Cobham (LON:COB) said that in the first nine months of 2010, the book-to-bill ratio of the group's Technology Divisions - Avionics and Surveillance, Defence Systems and Mission Systems - has improved in comparison to the equivalent period in 2009, remaining at a similar level to the first half of 2010.
Capital Shopping Centres Group (LON:CSCG) said that occupancy increased from 98.1% at 30 June to 98.8%. The group said that 104 lettings agreed since 30 June 2010, generating an uplift of £3.5 million in annual passing rent. The 235 new lettings in the year to date represent over 10 per cent of CSC's units.
Insurer Standard Life (LON:SL) said that in the nine months to 30 September group assets under administration rose 13% to £192.4 billion compared to £170.1 billion at 31 December 2009. Net inflows across the group increased by 60% to £7.2 billion.
Clothing retailer Next (LON:NXT) said sales for the Next Brand in the third quarter to 30 October 2010 were up 2.2% and towards the upper end of our guidance range of 0% to +3%.
National Grid (LON:NG) has received approval from the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities of its request to increase distribution rates and implement certain other rate mechanisms for its gas distribution business in Massachusetts. This business represents about 10% of National Grid's US operations.