Carlsberg owns 17.5% in Chonquin Beer Company in China which is ranked fifth in market share in the country. Heineken will now control 39% stake controlled by S&N in Kingfisher, the Indian market leader.

Carlsberg and S&N are still contesting shareholder agreement in an arbitration court on the ownership of Russian and Central European market leader, BBH. If shareholders of S&N fail to approve proposed offer, S&N is likely to pursue Carlsberg for breaking the shareholder agreement that prohibits it from making offer for S&N.

Heavily leveraged Carlsberg is likely to face a rating downgrade from rating agencies if the deal goes through. Carlsberg plans to pay for the deal by issuing rights and a debt offering. Carlsberg has new bank facilities totaling of Danish Kroner 29 billion and will issue equity rights offering of no more than DKK 31.5 billion.

The directors of S&N, were advised by Deutsche Bank, Rothschild and UBS, consider the terms of the offer to be fair and reasonable.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 6.80 or 0.12% to 5,869.00, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 37.17 or 0.76% to close at 4,878.12 and in Frankfurt DAX index lower 4.33 or 0.06% to close at 6,816.74. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 4.09 or 0.05% to close at 7,686.88.


10:30AM New York – U.S. stocks edge higher on earnings, stimulus package, and rally in global markets.

U.S. stocks in the morning trading edged higher after a rally in Asia and Europe. Earnings from Caterpillar, Honeywell, Microsfot, and Juniper Networks, and Harley Davidson dominated trading sentiment.

Investors took a comfort as leading lawmakers in Congress and Whitehouse acted to enact $150 billion package. Several fund managers expressed their lack of enthusiasm for the size of the package and effect of it on consumer spending.

Microsoft reported surge in revenue and earnings on rising sales of Xbox and Vista. The positive guidance for the quarter and the year lifted tech stocks in the morning.

Caterpillar (CAT: chart) reported fifth straight year of record sales and revenues and the fourth consecutive year of record profit.

For 2007, sales were $44.958 billion, up 8%, and earnings per share were $5.37, up 4% from 2006.

The company also reported record fourth-quarter sales and revenues of $12.144 billion, 10% higher than the fourth quarter of 2006, and earnings per share of $1.50, up 14% from a year ago.

Honeywell (HON: chart) today announced full-year 2007 sales increased 10% to $34.6 billion from $31.4 billion in 2006. Earnings per share were up 25% to $3.16 versus $2.52 in the prior year.

Fourth quarter sales were up 12% to $9.3 billion versus $8.3 billion in 2006. Earnings per share increased 26% to $0.91 versus $0.72 in the prior year fourth quarter. Cash flow from operations was up 16% to $1.4 billion versus $1.2 billion in the prior year, and free cash flow was up approximately 20% to $1.1 billion versus $0.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006.

10:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai - A record gain for Sensex, annual inflation rise.

Stock markets in India rebounded of Friday with the benchmark index, Sensex recording the record one-day increase only two days after creating a one-day record gain.

The markets were subdued in the early session but later recovered, lifted by the global market rally. Global markets surged on Friday on strong corporate sentiment in Germany and the return of confidence in the United States economy on the fiscal stimulus package.

The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 6.6% or 1,139.92 to 18,361.66 while the broader CNX S&P Nifty climbed 7% or 349.90 to 5383.35.

Of the stocks traded on the BSE, 1,558 shares advanced, 1,164 declined, and 36 stocks remained unchanged.