05 Jul 07. United Arab Emirates-based investment find Dubai International Capital said Thursday it has taken a 3.12% stake in European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. (FR:005730 : eads(euro aero def eur1 through its $2bn Global Strategic Equities Fund. In a statement, DIC said it won’t seek a board seat or to take an active role at the maker of Airbus commercial planes and military aircraft, but “will seek to build a strategic relationship with the EADS management and shareholders.”
29 Jun 07. Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA is interested in buying Japanese high-tech companies to boost its presence in Japan, expecting growth in both the economy and defence sector in one of its key Asian markets, its chief executive officer said on Friday. Finmeccanica, an Italian aerospace and defence company, also said it would set up a branch in Tokyo next spring to help it access the market for future opportunities. The company has offices in other Asian countries, China, India and Malaysia, but not yet in Japan. Finmeccanica now has up to €3.5bn euros ($4.7bn) in cash available if it chooses to buy a company or companies. Finmeccanica shareholders in May approved a proposal allowing the Italian aerospace company’s board to increase capital by as much as 10 percent for special purposes or acquisitions. Japanese machinery and basic materials firms, such as Mori Seiki Co., Fanuc Ltd., Nippon Steel Corp. , Daido Steel Co. and Toray Industries Ltd. are among companies that make carbon and optic fibres, specialty steel, machine tools, sensors, measuring equipment and supercomputers. Asked whether the Italian defence company is in negotiations with any Japanese peers, or if he met any company or defence officials here during this trip, Guarguaglini said no, adding it was still too early a stage and his company must carefully study the market before investing any money. But Guarguaglini said he met defence officials in Japan about two months ago when he accompanied Prime Minister Romano Prodi on his trip here. (Source: Reuters)
04 Jul 07. SAP AG acknowledged that one of its units made “some inappropriate downloads” from the Web site of U.S. rival Oracle Corp., in responding to a lawsuit that claims the German software company stole documents from its U.S. competitor. SAP also disclosed that the U.S. Justice Department has requested documents from both SAP and its customer-support subsidiary, TomorrowNow, and pledged to “fully cooperate” with the investigation. It declined to elaborate on the Justice Department request. The revelations were the result of an internal investigation conducted by SAP over allegations of “corporate theft” raised in a lawsuit filed by Oracle on March 22 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Oracle alleges that people associated with the TomorrowNow unit illegally downloaded huge quantities of documents, software and other confidential information from Oracle’s own customer-support system from September 2006 to January 2007. (Source: WSJ)
04 Jul 07. The Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engg) group is slated to more than double its revenue in the next five to 10 years to about $10bn if its growth strategy in the United States pans out. To avoid controversies that have dogged some government-linked corporations, ST Engg made a strategic decision to grow in areas where policies are clear and consistent. The game plan is simple enough: Tap into the lucrative US market by attacking both the commercial and highly-regulated defence sector, with retired four-star US General John Coburn at the helm of its US operations as chairman and CEO. ST Engg made its first foray into the US in 1991 by acquiring Mobile Aerospace Engineering to bolster its aerospace operations. Ten years were to pass before the group made a broad-based push into the country. In 2001, after creating VT Systems (VTS), a holding company for all of ST Engg’s US interests, the group went on a buying spree. The result is speciality companies such as San