Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Rio Tinto’s proposal to raise $19.5bn from Chinese company Chinalco is concerning Rio’s shareholders. The deal involves Chinalco buying stakes in Rio assets for $12.3bn and buying convertible bonds for $7.2bn and is currently being proposed to shareholders as an ordinary resolution, requiring a simple majority. The UK institutional shareholders believe it should be a special resolution requiring 75% to be passed. The concerns revolve around the principle of ‘pre-emptive rights’ that allow existing shareholders to retain their stakes in capital raising efforts, something that the Chinalco deal fails to accommodate. In Australia, one of Rio Tinto’s largest institutional investors, the Australian Foundation Investment Company (AFIC) that owns almost 1% of Rio’s Australian listed shares, also expressed concerns about the deal. AFIC argue that the investment will hand the Chinese state-owned company significant influence for no premium.The ongoing need to placate shareholders has led Rio Tinto to turn to a new chairman. Jan du Plessis will replace current chairman Paul Skinner at the AGM scheduled for April 20^th.
• After being caught out by the announcement that Porsche controlled 75% of the shares in Volkswagen last October, hedge funds are gathering under the auspices of the Alternative Investment Management Association to explore whether legal action is possible. An extraordinary spike in the price of Volkswagen shares – they increased 400 per cent in a few days and saw VW temporarily become the world’s biggest company by market value – led to billions of dollars of losses for a number of hedge funds.
• It was revealed that in the weekend after Lehman Brothers collapsed last September, Goldman Sachs was involved in talks to buy regional lender Wachovia. The deal foundered on the amount of federal support available, and Wachovia ended up being taken over by Wells Fargo.
• China’s largest securities company, Citic Securities is teaming up with Evercore Partners, the US investment bank, in a joint venture to make direct investments and advise clients on both sides of the Pacific.
• Coca Cola’s $2.4bn takeover of China’s leading juice company, China Huiyan Juice was rejected by the Chinese ministry of commerce. The Huiyan Juice brand has 42% of the pure fruit juice market in China, and the rule against the proposed acquisition was on competition grounds. The ministry quoted limited choice and harm to smaller domestic companies as reasons for the rejection.
• Hedge fund Paulson & Co is buying an 11.3% stake in South African gold miner AngloGold Ashanti for $1.28bn. The purchase from Anglo American, underlines Paulson’s view that gold will benefit as paper currencies suffer from the combination of the financial crisis and countries printing money.
• IBM is in advanced talks to acquire rival Sun Microsystems for about $6.5bn in cash.
• Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he still thought there was a ‘good opportunity’ for a deal with Yahoo that would combine the two companies’ internet search operations. Last year Yahoo rebuffed a potential $47.5bn deal from Microsoft. However, since then Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s chief executive at the time has stood down.

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by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

DiversityInc., the magazine dedicated to educating businesses on the benefits of a diverse workplace, this month announced The Diversity Inc Top 50 Companies for Diversity® list. The list, now in its ninth year, recognizes the winners of a competition which measures an organization’s commitment to diversity based on four criteria: CEO Commitment, Human Capital, Supplier Diversity and Corporate and Organizational Communications.

Companies and organizations with more than 1,000 employees are eligible for the award as long as they offer health benefits to same-sex partners of employees. In order to qualify, they must complete a detailed, analytic survey of more than 200 questions. The survey attempts, not just to track metrics, but to draw an accurate picture of a company’s culture. This year’s list is representative of 19 different industries from consumer packaged goods companies to industrial businesses.

Topping the list are the following companies:

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