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March twelve, 2008

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

In the news making headlines today:

Mergers and acquisitions, or M&A, activity in 2007 centred around the theme of the "mega deal", with South Africa's top ten deals tipping the scales at two hundred and eight comma one billion rand, and reflecting a 51,5% increase from the previous year's top ten transactions.

Ernst & Young transaction advisory services director, Dave Thayser, said that foreign direct investment, private equity and black economic-empowerment were the significant drivers behind M&A activity in the country.

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One of last year's mega deals was the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's investment in Standard Bank, which was valued at thirty-six comma seven billion rand

New diamond cutters are setting up shop in Botswana, the world's biggest diamond producer, to gain supplies in a tight market even though margins may be lower there, a top official of De Beers said on Tuesday.

De Beers, which accounts for around 40% of global rough diamond supply, is due to launch a new local marketing arm in Botswana this month to help boost the country's jewellery sector and create jobs

The tobacco industry has warned it may take to the courts if new tobacco control legislation is pushed through without proper consultation.

"There is no need to rush this bill," chief executive of the Tobacco Industry of SA, Francois van der Merwe, said in a statement issued on Tuesday following a meeting of Parliament's health portfolio committee.

The committee had received a briefing on the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, which seeks to crack down on advertising and sponsorship, improve warnings on packaging, raise the minimum age for tobacco sales to 18, and ban sales near schools.

South African State-owned power utility Eskom's uranium consumption could increase by more than ten times to four thousand tons a year by 2025, from the current figure of three hundred and thirty tons a year as it planned to add twenty thousand mega watts of nuclear generation capacity by that time, a company official said on Tuesday.

The utility currently only uses uranium to produce some one thousand eight hundred mega watts of power from two reactors at its only nuclear power station, Koeberg, in the Western Cape, equating to about from 5% to 7% of its total generation capacity.

Also making headlines today:

Kenya parliament to speed peace deal through

Russia wants UN sanctions for Darfur rebels

South African firms investing in supply chains to cope with global pressures are more profitable, a survey shows

BHP to close parts of Bayside smelter to achieve 10% cut in energy use

Zimbabwe says not all foreign firms have to sell stakes

East Africa economies seen weathering Kenya crisis

Double royalties might put De Beers' Finsch mine in danger of premature closure

And, Vale may abandon its Xstrata bid as shares fall

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories, visit engineeringnews.co.za, miningweekly.com and polity.org.za