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Spanish builder Metrovacesa said it agreed to sell its 27 percent stake in French peer Gecina to a group of investors as it unwinds a costly acquisition made during Spain's housing boom in an effort to pay down debt. _0"> The buyers - Norges Bank, Credit Agricole Assurances, U.S. fund Blackstone and Ivanhoe Cambridge - will pay 92 euros each for the 16.8 million shares, Metrovacesa said, implying a deal value of 1.55 billion euros ($2.11 billion). Gecina shares closed up more than 4 percent at 110.95 euros on Friday. Metrovacesa said the stake sale price represented a 10 percent discount to net asset value. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of September, Metrovacesa said in a statement late on Friday, provided "certain conditions" were fulfilled relating to the Spanish group's financial restructuring. Gecina welcomed the agreement, saying in a statement that it would "make it possible to continue putting in place a new sharehold

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates has sold his entire stake in G4S Plc , the British security firm trying to bounce back from a series of scandals that have hurt its reputation and profits, Bloomberg News reported. _0"> The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust and Cascade Investment, an asset management firm owned by Bill Gates, had last June disclosed a stake in G4S, when its holding crossed the 3 percent threshold for the first time. A filing on May 28 showed the holding was reduced below 3 percent, and the news agency said a spokesman for the Gates family had confirmed it no longer held any interest. "Like other large foundations, the foundation trust evaluates its holdings regularly, both for performance and fit," spokesman John Pinette was quoted saying. "As a result of this, the foundation trust no longer holds an investment in G4S." G4S declined comment and the Gates Foundation could not immedia

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates has sold his entire stake in G4S Plc , the British security firm trying to bounce back from a series of scandals that have hurt its reputation and profits. Cascade Investment, a firm owned by Bill Gates that manages assets exclusively for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, had last June disclosed a stake in G4S, when its holding crossed the 3 percent threshold for the first time. A filing on May 28 showed the holding was reduced below 3 percent, and a spokesman for the Gates Foundation told Reuters on Saturday it no longer held any interest in G4S. G4S declined comment. G4S, which runs services such as cash transportation and prison management in more than 125 countries, is in the middle of overhauling its sprawling class="mandelbrot_refrag"> business , shaking up management, cutting costs, improving customer service and restructuring weak divisions to help revive its fortunes

Kraft Foods Group Inc said on Saturday it raised U.S. class="mandelbrot_refrag"> retail prices for its well-known Maxwell House and Yuban roast and ground coffee brands by an average of 10 percent due to rising green bean costs, effective June 6. _0"> The move follows J.M. Smucker Co's price increase of around 9 percent to Folgers and Dunkin' Donut roast and ground class="mandelbrot_refrag"> retail brands earlier in the week. These are the first official list price increases for both roasters since May 2011. ICE arabica coffee class="mandelbrot_refrag"> futures soared nearly 90 percent between January and April to the highest level in more than two years at $2.19 per lb, following a drought in top grower class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Brazil . Arabica futures prices have since dropped around 20 percent.   true       A Kraft spokeswoman said in an email that the company's instant coffees, single-serve pods

For once, China looks to have done Japan a favour. In clinching a $400 billion deal last month to buy Russian gas, China may end up helping out its old political and economic rival in a way that matters hugely for Japan - energy security. The China-Russia agreement, the biggest gas deal ever, unlocks new gas supplies and could bring down gas prices across Asia, a development that would pay the biggest class="mandelbrot_refrag"> dividends for Japan, the world's top buyer of liquefied class="mandelbrot_refrag"> natural gas . Other big Asian gas buyers such as class="mandelbrot_refrag"> South Korea and Taiwan could also benefit. The deal, signed on May 21, cemented a dramatic shift in energy flows from the West to the East. Gas will be transported to China via a new pipeline linking Siberian gas fields from 2018, building up gradually to 38 billion cubic metres a year. China has massive gas needs, but access to more of the fuel is also

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday extended for one month the deadline for so-called category two Swiss class="mandelbrot_refrag"> banks suspected of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes to turn over information by one month. _0"> More than 100 class="mandelbrot_refrag"> banks that have a reason to believe they may have committed tax offences, defined as category two banks, have signed up to the program. They are eligible for a non-prosecution agreement if they come clean and face fines. The banks now have until July 31 to turn over the necessary information. The Justice Department said it had extended the original June 30 deadline because some banks were having trouble verifying whether an account was undeclared or disclosed in a timely manner to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The Swiss government-brokered program requires the category two banks to hand over some previously hidden information and face penalties equivalent to up

General Motors Co on Thursday issued a report detailing how for 11 years it turned a blind eye to an ignition-switch problem linked to at least 13 deaths but largely pinned the blame on what the report described as incompetent lower-level employees, leaving top brass untouched. The report, which will be the subject of upcoming congressional hearings, describes shortcomings of GM engineers, including a failure to understand "how the car was built." Meanwhile, according to the 325-page report, the highest levels of the company were not made aware. Providing a rare peek into the operations of one of the world's biggest automotive companies, the internal investigation said GM had a long-running corporate culture in which nobody took responsibility for problems. The "GM nod" was how CEO Mary Barra described that culture, "when everyone nods in agreement to a proposed plan of action, but then leaves the room and does nothing," the document said. In Feb