A round up of the top news and views on FT Alphaville and FT.com as at noon, London time.
_
On FT Alphaville this morning,
- The S&P 500, by far the world’s most tracked stock index, is almost back to its all-time high. Earlier this week it traded above its highest closing level at the top of the tech bubble in March 2000, after a four-year rally. And yet, nerves are widespread that a correction is in the offing.
- At least Macquarie Bank will be looking on with glee. The board of Alinta, the Australian energy utility which rejected Macquarie’s offer earlier this month, on Tuesday came under fire from some of its shareholders for accepting the rival A$8bn ($6.5bn) takeover offer from Babcock and Brown and Singapore Power.
- The party continues. Faced with an agreed Xstrata bid for Lionore, Norilsk Nickel raised its game and its offer for the Canadian miner on Wednesday, announcing a revised offer of C$27.50 per share.
- TPG, the US private equity group, has turned its sights on Indonesian banking, after toying last year with the idea of buying into Garuda, Indonesia’s national flag carrier. On Tuesday, TPG sealed its first Indonesian acquisition, acquiring 72 per cent of Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional, reports the FT.
On FT.com this morning,
- Experian, the consumer credit and commercial information provider, on Wednesday reported an 11 per cent rise in operating profit to $825m at constant currency rates, in its first set of annual results since it was demerged from GUS last October.
- ICAP on Wednesday lifted its forecast of the savings it would generate from last year’s £459m acquisition of EBS, an electronic foreign exchange broker, from $45m to $58m a year by the end of the 2008-09 financial year. While the price the inter-dealer broker paid for EBS had been considered high, Michael Spencer, ICAP’s founder and chief executive, said the deal had proved “an outstanding success” and was already contributing “significantly” to earnings, with savings already achieved running at $15m a year.
_
Click here to sign up for our free 6am Cut email service and ensure you’re getting the news you need to plan your day. You will be asked to complete a short registration process, after which the 6.00 AM Cut will appear in your inbox each weekday.