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The billionaire founders of ENRC ( id="symbol_ENRC.L_0"> ENRC.L ) are close to finalizing a buyout bid for the London-listed Kazakh miner, valuing the troubled group at just over 3 billion pounds ($4.7 billion), below the value of a tentative proposal made in May. ENRC's co-founders - Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan Ibragimov and Patokh Chodiev - and Kazakhstan's government are seeking to acquire the roughly 46 percent of ENRC which they do not already control, offering cash plus the government's shareholding in Kazakh mining rival Kazakhmys ( id="symbol_KAZ.L_1"> KAZ.L ), also listed in London.   The founders want to take the group private after more than five years of bitter boardroom battles, corruption probes and an acquisition spree that left $5 billion of debt. In a statement on Sunday, a day ahead of the deadline for making a firm offer, the bidding consortium said it was "in the advanced stages" of preparing an offer worth $2.6

Nationwide ( id="symbol_POB_p.L_0"> POB_p.L ), Britain's biggest customer-owned financial services group, is drawing up plans to raise at least 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) to fill a hole in its balance sheet, the Sunday Times said. _0"> Nationwide must raise additional capital of 400 million pounds in order to meet a new target for banks to hold core Tier One capital equivalent to 7 percent of their risk-weighted assets, Britain's financial regulator said last week.   In addition, Nationwide must raise extra capital to meet another new requirement by the Bank of England for banks to have a leverage ratio of at least 3 percent. Its leverage ratio currently stands at 2 percent. The leverage ratio measures capital against total loans, not adjusted for their supposed riskiness, and some bankers argue it penalizes low-risk, high volume businesses like mortgage lending. Nationwide is Britain's third-biggest home loans provider. Chief Executive Graha

Lloyds Banking Group ( id="symbol_LLOY.L_0"> LLOY.L ) has asked the European competition authorities to give it an extra two years to sell the hundreds of branches it is required to dispose of as a condition for its state bail-out, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper said. _0"> The bank, which is 39 percent-owned by the government, began talks with the European Commission earlier this month. It currently has a deadline of November 30 to sell 631 branches. A sale to the Co-operative Bank ( id="symbol_CPBB_p.L CPBB_p.L ) fell through in April amid concerns over the mutual's financial position.   _1"> The Sunday Telegraph said Lloyds had asked the commission to give it until the end of 2015 to complete the sale. Lloyds is now planning to sell the branches as a separate business via a share listing on the London Stock Exchange. Lloyds plans to sell a first tranche of the shares in the business next year, industry sources have told Reuters. Lloyds decl

European Central Bank policymaker Joerg Asmussen said on Sunday that closer integration within Europe called for European Union institutions - in particular its parliament - to be strengthened to ensure democratic control and accountability. _0"> "The increasing level of integration within Europe calls for a new institutional design to ensure legitimization, accountability and democratic control," the German ECB Executive Board member said at an event organized by the Kiel institute for the World Economy.   Asmussen said governments should ensure national parliaments were appropriately informed and involved in European decision procedures. But often, decisions with the European Union's common interest could only be made at a supranational level. "Therefore European institutions should be strengthened, in particular the European Parliament which could maybe also convene in a euro area format," he said. Germany's weekly Der Spiegel wrote on Sunda

PepsiCo Inc ( id="symbol_PEP.N_0"> PEP.N ) - best known for Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay chips - is taking its Muller yogurt brand nationwide expanding its portfolio of healthier foods at a time that U.S. consumers are increasingly shunning traditional soft drinks. Yogurt is one of the fastest selling categories in grocery stores, and PepsiCo sees plenty of room for growth even though it has come late to the party.   "Dairy has become everybody's favorite avenue when it comes to escaping the miseries of obesity," said Bevmark Consulting CEO Tom Pirko. "Everybody's trying to figure out a health angle." To boost its chances of success, PepsiCo has partnered with Germany's Theo Muller Group, a stalwart of the European dairy industry, repeating a strategy that has already made the snack-and-soda company a leading U.S. purveyor of hummus and other healthy dips. Earlier this month, the Muller Quaker Dairy joint venture opened a yogurt plant in u

Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa (VMMEA) is one of three companies to win a virtual telecom license in Saudi Arabia , the industry regulator said on Sunday, in the latest step to liberalize the kingdom's communications sector. Five companies had bid for the Saudi mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) licenses. MVNOs not own the networks they use to provide communications services but instead lease capacity from conventional operators, usually paying them a percentage of their revenue as well as fees.   VMMEA, part-owned by British entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group, will launch an MVNO on former monopoly Saudi Telecom Co's 7010.SE network, the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said in statement on its website. Jawraa Lebara has joined with second-biggest operator Etihad Etisalat 7020.SE (Mobily), while Dubai-based retailer Axiom Telecom will team up with Zain Saudi 7030.SE. Local companies FastNet and Safari were the losing bid

Jacob Frenkel, an inflation hawk who was Bank of Israel governor in the 1990s, will be returning to the helm of the central bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid said on Sunday. They appointed Frenkel to replace Stanley Fischer, who is stepping down at the end of June after eight years on the job, having guided Israel's economy through the global financial crisis. Frenkel, 70, beat deputy governor Karnit Flug, who will likely be acting central bank chief until Frenkel starts. The date of his arrival was not announced. "He is a world renowned figure, which is what Netanyahu was looking for," said HSBC economist Jonathan Katz. As governor between 1991 and 2000, Frenkel was credited with reducing inflation, liberalising financial markets and removing foreign exchange controls.   He is currently chairman of JPMorgan Chase International ( id="symbol_JPM.N_0"> JPM.N ) and also served as vice chairman of insurer American Inte