Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) — European and Asian shares rose for a third day as a resurgence of merger speculation boosted food and beverage stocks and mining companies and the Group of 20 nations agreed on steps to shore up the global financial system.

Cadbury Plc, the world’s largest confectioner, jumped 40 percent after rejecting a 10.2 billion-pound ($16.7 billion) offer from Kraft Foods Inc. Lonmin Plc rallied 4.4 percent as the Observer said Xstrata Plc is considering a takeover bid. Deutsche Telekom AG advanced 2 percent after a person involved in the discussions said Europe’s biggest phone company is close to deciding whether to sell its U.K. unit.

Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added 1.4 percent to 237.21 at 1:11 p.m. in London. Mergers and acquisitions are recovering amid signs the worst recession since World War II is easing. Last week, Baker Hughes Inc., the world’s third-largest oilfield-services provider, agreed to buy BJ Services Co. for $5.5 billion and Walt Disney Co. agreed to purchase Marvel Entertainment Inc. for about $4 billion.

“Once we get to grips with the reality that we will see growth in 2010 we’ll be back to mergers and acquisitions again,” Thomas Tilse, Frankfurt-based head of portfolio strategy at Cominvest Asset Management GmbH, which oversees about $65 billion, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “In basic resources and food and beverages, these long-term themes, there will be a lot of mergers and acquisitions.”

Asian, U.S. Shares

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 1.3 percent as Abu Dhabi agreed to buy Singapore’s state-controlled Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. for S$2.5 billion ($1.8 billion) to create a challenger to the world’s second-biggest maker of customized chips. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.4 percent today, with U.S. markets closed for the Labor Day holiday.

The Stoxx 600 fell 1.5 percent last week on concern that a six-month rally has outpaced the prospects for earnings and economic growth. The European gauge is valued at 45.4 times profit, near the highest level since September 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Finance chiefs from the G-20 nations concluded weekend talks in London with an agreement on a regulatory blueprint aimed at avoiding a repeat of the global financial crisis that spurred $1.6 trillion of credit-market losses and writedowns since 2007. The G-20 measures include forcing banks to curb leverage and raise the amount and quality of assets they keep in reserve once growth takes hold.

‘Global Governance’

“The G-20 has shown once again that governments from around the world can come together to agree on the global governance the new global economy needs,” U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

The panel that oversees the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, meeting after the G-20 sought to extend their reach into banks’ pay and profits, yesterday agreed lenders should raise the quality of their capital by including more stock. Financial firms also will have to introduce a leverage ratio and devise ways to boost reserves when the economy is robust.

European investor confidence increased for the second month in September as the euro-area economy starts to recover. An index measuring euro-region sentiment rose to minus 14.6, the highest since July 2008, from minus 17 in August, the Limburg, Germany-based Sentix research institute said today.

German factory orders advanced for a fifth month in July, helping the recovery in Europe’s largest economy gain traction.

Cadbury Offer

Cadbury rallied 40 percent to 798 pence, the biggest jump in at least 21 years, after saying Kraft’s offer “fundamentally undervalues the group.”

Kraft declined 1 percent to $27.83 in German trading. The world’s second-largest foodmaker said the merger would create “a global powerhouse in snacks, confectionery and quick meals.” Analysts said Kraft’s 745 pence-a-share proposal may trigger rival offers from Nestle SA and Hershey Co. for Cadbury’s Trident gum and Dairy Milk chocolate.

A gauge of food and beverage companies in the Stoxx 600 soared 3 percent, the steepest advance among 19 industry groups. Group Danone SA, the world’s largest yogurt maker, rose 3.7 percent to 38.91 euros. Tate & Lyle Plc, the maker of low- calorie sweetener Splenda, added 3.7 percent to 417 pence.

Associated British Foods Plc advanced 4.3 percent to 847 pence after saying it expects sales at its Primark clothing stores to grow as better weather than last year lures customers.

Whitbread Plc rallied 16 percent to 1,188 pence as sales at its Costa Coffee unit increased, and the company said it would meet profit estimates.

Mining Companies

Lonmin surged 4.4 percent to 1,647 pence, extending last week’s 8 percent increase. Xstrata’s Chief Executive Officer Mick Davis asked JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG to conduct a feasibility study on a potential bid for the platinum producer, the Observer reported, citing no one.

Rio Tinto Group gained 1.3 percent to 2,447 pence in London, while BHP Billiton Ltd. added 2.2 percent to 1,620 pence. The world’s No. 1 and No. 3 mining companies are considering a A$1 billion ($853 million) merger of their Canadian diamond operations, the Australian reported, without saying where it got the information.

Metal prices have surged this year, prompting Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Standard Bank Plc to flag more mining acquisitions. Takeovers in the industry are up almost a fifth this quarter from the previous three months as Canada’s Eldorado Gold Corp. and China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. agreed to buy rivals in Australia.

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom increased 2 percent to 9.59 euros. The company has been studying options for its T-Mobile UK unit since February and plans a decision soon, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Vodafone Group Plc and Telefonica SA made informal offers to buy it for about 4 billion pounds, and Deutsche Telekom is in talks with France Telecom SA for a possible joint venture of their U.K. assets, the Financial Times said today.

Separately, Telefonica, Europe’s second-biggest phone company, said it will pay $1 billion to boost its stake in China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., raising its investment in the world’s biggest communications market. Telefonica added 2.1 percent to 17.75 euros.

European phone stocks were raised to “bullish” from “neutral” at Nomura Holdings Inc. The brokerage also upgraded the pharmaceutical industry to “bullish” from “bearish” and advised investors to reduce holdings of shares most sensitive to economic growth.

Bayer AG rose 3.8 percent to 44.11 euros after the German drug and chemical maker was added to Bank of America Corp.’s “Europe 1” list.

Fortis Gains

Fortis, the insurer that sold all its banking businesses in October to avert a collapse, advanced 3.4 percent to 3.11 euros. RSA Insurance Group Plc may bid for distressed businesses owned by American International Group Inc. and Fortis, the Sunday Telegraph reported, without saying where it got the information.

Groupe Eurotunnel SA rose 8 percent to 4.57 euros. The operator of the Channel Tunnel rail link between England and France said a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fund will become its biggest shareholder by swapping deferred equity securities for stock.

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The market share of the state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has gone up to 64 percent in the first four months of financial year 2010 (FY10), even as the private sector insurance firms continue to suffer.

According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), LIC’s first year premium collection on insurance policies during first four months of the current fiscal rose by 32 percent to Rs. 14,265 crore.

In order to increase its market share further by diversifying its services to all segments of the society, LIC has introduced a micro-insurance policy. The policy called Jeevan Mangal is meant for the people living below the poverty line (BPL).

The policy is a term assurance of premiums on maturity, in which the policy holder can pay the premium either as a total sum or on yearly, half yearly, quarterly, monthly, fortnightly and weekly basis. “The policy is basically for the poor people and we hope that many BPL families will come forward to take this new policy as the premium amount is very less and there are multiple modes of premium payment ranging from weekly to yearly,” said CH Jakkappanava, Senior Divisional Manager of LIC’s Berhampur division.

After the slowdown affected the launch of its initial public offering (IPO) last year, Reliance Infratel, the telecoms tower unit of Reliance Communications has revived its IPO plan and would hit the primary market soon, reports Business Standard.

The company plans to raise up to $1 billion (Rs. 5000 crore) through the IPO, while it would file the draft prospectus within a week. In February last year, the company had filed a prospectus with the regulator seeking to offer 10.05 percent of the post-issue capital and was looking to raise up to Rs. 6000 crore. However, a fall in equity markets worldwide, including in India, forced Reliance Infratel to drop the plan.

Reliance Infratel is 95 percent owned by Reliance Communications and aims to sell at least 10 percent stake to help fund its expansion plans, said sources close to the development. The Business Standard said the revived IPO would help ease pressure on the company to raise funds from private equity firms, with whom it is in talks. Indian firms have raised nearly $10 billion in share sales in 2009, surpassing last year’s volumes, mainly guided by a 62 percent rally in the Sensex this year.

Hosting some 40 trade ministers from across the world for a two-day meeting here, India Thursday made a strong plea for an end to protectionism by some countries while it pushed for early resumption of multilateral trade talks and building a consensus on the way forward.

In his opening remarks at the mini-ministerial meeting of the 153-member World Trade Organisation (WTO), India’s Commerce Minister Anand Sharma asked the assembled dignitaries to remain conscious of the 2010 deadline to conclude the Doha Round.

Sharma said the trade ministers had no doubt reaffirmed their commitment to the current round of trade talks ever since these were launched at the Qatari capital in November 2001. Meetings have since been held in Washington, London, Bali, Paris, L’Aquila and Singapore.

“Together, we need to work in this spirit, go beyond yet another reaffirmation and work collectively to provide guidance for a clear road map of multilateral engagement in the months ahead, remaining conscious of the 2010 timeline.”

The minister recalled that in the previous meetings, the leaders were also united in their views that sustaining trade and investment flows was critical for the future prosperity of developed and developing economies alike.

“They recognised that one of the main threats to a revival of trade flows is the rising protectionist pressures and continued delay in concluding the Doha round. Therefore, strengthening the multilateral trading system by concluding the Doha round at the earliest is vital, is an imperative.”

Maintaining that the Delhi meeting constituted a microcosm of the entire WTO membership, “representing all shades of opinion and interests”, Sharma said this would be the first time since July 2008 that such a meeting was taking place to give a determined push to the multilateral process.

Asking ministers to discuss the process required to reach the goal and to build a consensus, Sharma said the meeting was aimed at providing guidance for a road map for the multilateral engagement.

At the same time, he said the two-day meeting was certainly not the appropriate forum to talk specific issues in various areas of the negotiations as not all 153 WTO members were represented. This was best left for Geneva, the headquarters of the global trade body.

But Sharma, nevertheless, called for the discussions to focus on the best ways to spark the multilateral negotiations and build a broad-based consensus so that they result in quick conclusion.

The commerce minister said he was aware that sharp differences remained, which needed to be resolved by officials, before the ministers can collectively outline the way forward and come up with fair solutions.

“In some quarters, it has been suggested that most issues have been settled and we are almost in end game,” he said, adding: “It would be apparent that there are still a few gaps and large number of unresolved issues.”

“In some instances, the architecture of a solution is not yet fully in sight. In others, there still remain negotiating gaps that need to be sufficiently narrowed before the ministers can collectively outline the way forward come up with fair solutions.”

Earlier, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy told a business conference that restrictive steps by some countries to protect their domestic markets in the wake of the global economic crisis had hurt international trade, which must remain open.

“Some countries have increased tariffs, instituted new non-tariff measures and initiated more anti-dumping actions,” Lamy told the conference organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

“True, none of them has triggered, so far, a tit-for-tat chain retaliation. But there is no denying they have had some trade-chilling effect,” said the director general, here at the Indian government’s invitation for talks on Doha Round.

“While I do not think we are in a situation where we need to cry wolf, we need to remain vigilant and ensure that WTO members remain open to one another.”

Moscow: A new deal between India and Russia on the funds for the refit of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov will be signed in mid-October, the head of the state technology corporation said Thursday.

“An additional agreement will be signed,” Sergei Chemezov, head of Rostekhnologii, told a news conference in Moscow.

Under the original $1.5 billion 2004 contract between Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Indian Navy, which includes delivery of MiG-29K Fulcrum carrier-based fighters, the work on the aircraft carrier was to have been completed in 2008.

However, Russia later claimed it had underestimated the scale and the cost of the modernisation, and asked for an additional $1.2 billion, which New Delhi said was “exorbitant”.

After long-running delays and disputes, India offered in February 2008 to raise the refit costs for the aircraft carrier, docked at the Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia for the past 12 years, by up to $600 million.

Russia said it was not satisfied with the proposed amount and the issue of the additional funding remains unresolved.

Talks on the additional funding agreement are currently underway. Russia has pledged to finish the Admiral Gorshkov’s overhaul as soon as possible and deliver it to India in 2012 if the additional $1.2 billion funding is provided by New Delhi.

According to Russian media, India has no alternative but to allocate the required funds, despite recent objections from the government’s accounting office, because the Indian Navy desperately needs to replace its INS Viraat, which, although currently operational, is now 50 years old.

After modernisation, the carrier will join the Indian Navy as INS Vikramaditya, and is expected to be seaworthy for 30 years.

Admiral Gorshkov is a modified Kiev class aircraft carrier, originally named Baku.

The ship was laid down in 1978 at the Nikolayev South shipyard in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned with the Soviet Navy in 1987.

It was renamed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In 1994, following a boiler room explosion, the Admiral Gorshkov sat in dock for a year for repairs. After a brief return to service in 1995, it was finally withdrawn from service in 1996 and put up for sale.

The ship’s displacement is 45,000 tonnes. It has a maximum speed of 32 knots and an endurance of 13,500 nautical miles (25,000 km) at a cruising speed of 18 knots.

India is expected to clock double-digit growth in the software and IT enabled services (ITeS) exports next year as the U.S. and other markets are recovering from the meltdown, a top official of the trade association NASSCOM said here Thursday.

“We are expecting IT exports to grow in double digits as the software markets of the U.S. and other countries are recovering well. These markets became sluggish due to the financial meltdown but now things have started improving,” NASSCOM Chairman Pramod Bhasin told reporters.

He was speaking on the sidelines of ‘e-Revolution 2009′, a flagship forum of this region jointly hosted by the governments of Haryana and Punjab and the Chandigarh administration in association with NASSCOM and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

“In 2009-10, the Indian market has grown by merely four to seven percent and the software exports from India have been around $48 to 50 billion. Whereas in 2008-09, it increased at 16 percent and was at $46.3 billion,” said Bhasin, who is also the chief executive officer of Genpact.

Emphasising on improving skill-sets the work force, Bhasin added, “At present the IT industry can employ only eight to 10 percent of the total graduates due to their lack of required skills. There is a need for an updated curriculum and industrial training to hone the entrepreneurial skills and talent of our youngsters.”

Talking about Chandigarh, he said the city “is at par with any other tier-I city, due to its strong social infrastructure, educational facilities and safe environment. This city can become the next Singapore because it has all the requisite elements to attract potential people and to emerge as an IT hub”.

“It can also surpass cities like Pune and Bangalore in terms of industrial growth and employment opportunities,” he added.

After closing the social network platform SpotM, Yahoo has launched Meme, in English, to take on microblogging site Twitter. The company had launched this service in Spanish and Portuguese languages earlier this month.

Meme is currently in an invite-only mode, similar to few microblogging services like Tumblr, Twitter, Pownce and others. After creating the account, users get a blank blog for micro-sharing text, images, music, videos or mash up of all these things.

It also offers the facility to add new friends by searching the internet, which is quite similar to Tumblr and Twitter.

The company’s previous efforts to capitalize on the social networking domain kept failing in spite of repeated attempts. The recently launched ‘Know Your Mojo’ also failed along with the Indian social network, SpotM, which was closed down less than a year after its launch.

Meme does not allow much in terms of customization. The users cannot customize the themes with background images and custom CSS to style the text, as this facility is available with Twitter and Tumblr. Both these services have a rich faux-cabulary, which defines how a person uses the service. Meme does not lend on a particular vocabulary. The setting panel has minimal options like Meme title, 100 character description, avatar/photo and notifications. It also shows the comments posted by the users recently.

Yahoo Meme can have a big advantage over Twitter in terms of reliability. Twitter’s image has suffered for frequent service outages, with its “Fail Whale” graphic appearing whenever the site is overloaded, emerging as the company’s unofficial logo.

Several technology sites like TechCrunch and paidContent are not pleased with Yahoo’s move, they said, “Meme seems to lack in its features and in potential to surpass its competitors.” They also pointed out that the company has a spotty record with Mash and SpotM.

Bangalore: In a move that could bring a smile to many faces, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced that it will hire 25,000 people globally in 2009, with 90 percent of them in India alone. Though the number is bigger when compared to the hiring these days, it is less than last year when TCS appointed around 35,000 people.

With this recruitment drive, TCS also plans to expand its presence into the tier-II cities in India. “We will be hiring 25,000 people this year, which means roughly 25 lakh square feet of work space required and, therefore, we need to grow outside the metros. Tier-II cities are our only focus for expansion in the country as the top rung are clogged and saturated,” said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Vice-President and Head of Government Industry Solutions unit at TCS.

Following this hiring spree, the total global manpower of TCS would go up to more than 1.8 lakh. This will put the IT services provider among large private Indian employers like Tata Steel, which has the total employee strength of two lakh. Going forward, the company, which has an estimated 32 percent market share, plans to cash in on the Indian government’s plan to invest Rs. 40,000 crore on IT services.

Currently, 70 percent of the IT segment’s revenue is from India, while the rest comes from the U.S., Latin America, Africa and South East Asian countries. However, the revenue contribution from Indian government businesses to the total company revenue of $6 billion is less than five percent, which the company intends to increase to more than 10 percent in the next three years.