Japan’s Nikko Asset Management is in “serious” talks to buy Singapore’s DBS Asset Management, in a deal that would also involve DBS Group (DBSM.SI) buying a small stake in Nikko, three sources said on Tuesday.
The combined entity could be managing about US$145 billion ($190 billion) in assets. The deal is a sign of ongoing consolidation in the fund industry, where size has become increasingly important amid rising costs and falling fees for mutual funds.
Serbia wants to begin the negotiations on its EU membership by late 2011 or early 2012, President Boris Tadić said in Munich on Monday. Tadić met with Bavaria’s Prime Minister Horst Seehofer and the two held a joint news conference afterwards, where Seehofer supported Serbia’s EU integration.
The deal is another sign of ongoing consolidation in the fund management industry where size has become increasingly important amid rising costs and falling fees for mutual funds.
“Nikko has already made an offer,” a source with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters.
Intelligence officials in Iran arrested several "nuclear spies" today. Iran has been the site of many infections of the Stuxnet worm, which targets industrial control systems. – Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi announced today the
arrests of multiple people he described as quot;nuclear spies. quot;
Moslehi told the Mehr News
Agency of the arrests, but offered no further details. The
arrests follow reports that the Stuxnet worm infected computers belong…
The U.S. and EU negotiators have met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East George Mitchell and EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Catherine Ashton have continued their mission in the Middle East to try to secure permanent peace in the region.
Acting Kosovo president Jakup Krasnici says that elections for the assembly in PriÅ¡tina could be held in six months’ time. Fatmir Sejdiu resigned from that position last week.
Celestial Nutrifoods says there has been no further progress in the ongoing negotiations between the company and convertible bond holders and that no constructive proposals are currently being discussed. The company says it is considering other proposals to resolve the matter. Meanwhile, the group is exposed to any enforcement actions that the convertible bond holders may bring.
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LDP leader Čedomir Jovanović requested the government and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković to run the future talks between Belgrade and Priština. He also wants the Serbian parliament to formulate the dialogue platform.
American representatives are not expected to take part in the future dialogue between Belgrade and PriÅ¡tina directly. This is according to an article in the Belgrade daily Blic today, which quotes the paper’s sources at the EU.
Former U.S. state secretary Madeleine Albright has called for a speedy start of the “dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo”, said reports.
She also stated the two sides will have difficulties in agreeing on the agenda.
Representatives of the ministries of justice of Serbia and Montenegro today will resume talks on an agreement on mutual extradition of their citizens. In the first phase of the talks, representatives of the ministries of the two states reached an agreement on allowing extradition of perpetrators of the most serious crimes, such as organized crime, corruption, money laundering and war crimes.
U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Christopher Dell said the coming negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo will include the whole Kosovo. The talks should not be focused just on the predominantly Serb populated northern part.
The Serbian government is preparing an expert team and a detailed platform for negotiations with PriÅ¡tina. The talks will open with “light-weight topicsâ€. It is not known whether the “patron” of the talks will be the EU or the UN. Negotiations between Belgrade and PriÅ¡tina will begin in late October.
The leaders of Iran and the United States have indicated they are ready to resume international talks aimed at ending the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. Presidents Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Barack Obama spoke about the nuclear issue in separate speeches on September 23 to the United Nations General Assembly. The speeches came four months after the latest round of UN sanctions was imposed against Iran for failing to curb uranium-enrichment activities.
First Deputy PM and Interior Minister Ivica DaÄić said that Serbia was ready to talk about all open issues with PriÅ¡tina.
He stressed that solving of each concrete problem which was important for the lives of the citizens was “somehow connected” to the status of Kosovo.
Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanović has stated that the Serbian government will adopt a platform for the negotiations with PriÅ¡tina. This will be “in keeping with its mandate, competencies, national interests and real circumstances”.
Serbian President Boris Tadić met with EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Catherine Ashton in New York on Thursday.
He told reporters after the meeting that the dialogue between Belgrade and PriÅ¡tina will begin soon, “but that the sides should resolve technical issues before that”.
The move underscores the ongoing consolidation in the commodities sector, which has seen global companies heading to Asia and major Asian players seeking assets in the West.
Singapore commodity firm Olam International (OLAM.SI) said on Friday it has engaged in preliminary talks with France’s Louis Dreyfus for a possible collaboration that could take the form of a merger.
The statement came after France’s Les Echos newspaper reported on Thursday that Louis Dreyfus was considering a merger with Olam and a listing of certain activities among possible options to expand the family-owned company.
