Wednesday Papers: Potash rejects $39bn approach by BHP - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* BHP Billiton on Tuesday made a $39bn preliminary offer for PotashCorp, whose board rejected the approach; the world’s largest listed fertiliser producer described the $130 a share cash offer as “grossly inadequate”.

* Shares in F&C Asset Management surged on Tuesday after a vehicle controlled by the activist investor Edward Bramson took a 5.2% stake in the company worth £15.6m.

* Sadeq Sayeed, the former chief executive of Nomura’s European business and a long-term adviser to the Japanese bank’s board, has been awarded a £22m “golden handshake” after leaving the bank.

* Investors continue to pull out of Gartmore. 

* EMI will fall short of its banking covenants until 2015 and will need a far larger injection of fresh equity next year than the £87.5m it received in 2010.

* Walmart suffered its fifth successive decline in sales in the second quarter; comparable sales fell 1.8%.

* British horseracing's governing body on Tuesday announced plans to scrap 10% of race fixtures next season.

* Hammerson plans to sell half of its largest property to Korean pension fund.

* Reynolds snaps up Hefty bags maker, Pactiv, in $6bn deal including debt.

* Blackstone invests $300m for minority stake in power developer Moser Baer Projects in India.

The Daily Telegraph