COMPANIES

The end game in thorny merger talks between Porsche and Volkswagen looms on July 23 when the carmakers' supervisory boards meet separately in Porsche's home town of Stuttgart.

Sanofi-Aventis said on Wednesday a group of independent experts had concluded that studies highlighting a possible link between its Lantus diabetes drug and an increased risk of cancer were flawed.

American Airlines parent AMR Corp on Wednesday posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss as capacity cuts and new revenue streams helped offset weak travel demand.

Boeing Co will trim staff on its missile defense program and future combat systems by about 1,000 -- about 1.4 percent -- because of U.S. Defense Department budget cuts, the company said on Wednesday.

American Airlines parent AMR Corp on Wednesday posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss as capacity cuts and new revenue streams helped offset weak travel demand.

Citigroup has become the latest bank to rebuild its European oil and gas investment banking team, rehiring James Sleeman and naming another senior banker as a global co-head covering the sector.

Industrial distributor W.W. Grainger posted an 18 percent drop in quarterly profit, hurt by weak demand across all end markets and geographies, and said it had not seen an indication of an economic turnaround.

Private equity-backed Kosmos Energy is still mulling a possible sale of its Ghanaian oil interests, despite securing a loan to fund the fields' development, industry sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Ellington Financial LLC, a specialty finance company, is planning to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering, according to a prospectus filed on Tuesday.

Brazilian investor Caio Auriemo and his family will sell their stake in Diagnosticos da America, Latin America's largest medical diagnostics company, in a transaction that might raise up to 210 million reais ($107 million), local newspaper Valor Economico reported.

Private-equity owned Nycomed and a Japanese drugs company are in the early second round of an auction for all of Solvay's pharmaceuticals business, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Germany sees Canadian auto parts maker Magna as the front-runner to take over carmaker Opel, but it would reassess its position if another buyer for the General Motors subsidiary emerged, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

CVTech Group Inc, a Canadian electrical services provider, said it agreed to acquire Riggs Distler & Co Inc, a maintenance and construction services provider, for about $37.1 million in cash and stock, to boost its North American industrial and utility markets.

British bank Barclays Plc is considering the sale of its private equity business and will meet investment partners this week to discuss the issue, several people familiar with the matter said.

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co Ltd, the country's third-largest life insurer and partly owned by the Carlyle Group, is set to relaunch its Hong Kong IPO, according to sources, after its first attempt failed last year when markets plunged.

Air France-KLM would still be interested in buying Austrian Airlines if the troubled carrier was put up for sale in a fresh auction, Austrian newspaper Kurier reported on Wednesday.

German truckmaker MAN SE will pay 560 million euros ($786.7 million) to get a 25 percent plus one share stake in Chinese peer Sinotruk, MAN said, booting its presence in Asia's top market.

AMR Corp , parent of American Airlines, said its quarterly loss shrank from a year ago, when the company took a $1.1 billion charge, but it remains troubled by economic weakness.

Gannett Co Inc , the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results after slashing jobs to cut costs, sending its shares up 20 percent.

Porsche's debt woes, Calpers sues agencies, Gannet beats Street

In spite of the economic recession, an Aspen home owner became the first to sell the most expensive home in the U.S. for the year.

General Motors unveiled plans on Wednesday to spend about $1 billion in Brazil through 2012 to develop a new family of vehicles for South America, a priority market for the U.S. automaker as it looks to rebound from bankruptcy protection.

Former General Motors Corp Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, ousted in March by the Obama administration, will retire in August with a package worth $8.6 million in the first five years, the company said on Tuesday.

General Motors unveiled plans on Wednesday to spend 2 billion reais ($1.02 billion) in Brazil through 2012 to develop a new family of vehicles for the South American market.

As all farmers worth their salt will tell you, green shoots do not guarantee a harvest.

U.S. mortgage applications rose for a second straight week, driven by a jump in demand for home refinancing loans as interest rates tumbled, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

A July 10 lender bulletin from Freddie Mac says appraisers

Sports car maker Porsche SE aims to use a capital increase and the sale of a stake to Qatar to cut its net debt that has ballooned to more than 10 billion euros ($14.05 billion), two sources close to Porsche told Reuters on Wednesday.

U.S. investment fund Lone Star's planned takeover of failed Japanese real estate investment trust (REIT) New City Residence Investment Corp was blocked by creditors on Wednesday.