Yesterday, oil refiner and marketer Sunoco Inc. (SUN) announced certain strategic actions to improve the company’s performance and competitiveness in a cost-effective manner, as it struggles to cope with the bearish refining margin environment. Sunoco said that it would indefinitely idle a New Jersey refinery, furlough 400 workers and cut its dividend in half. The company hopes that these measures will save $320 million annually, though this would also lead to $475–$550 million in largely non-cash financial charges over the next few quarters. Sunoco has decided to shut down its 145,000 barrels-per-day Eagle Point refinery in Westville, NJ, until market conditions improve. In the meantime, the company will shift production from Eagle Point to its refineries in Philadelphia and Marcus Hook, PA, and may use the idled refinery to produce alternative fuels. The Philadelphia and Marcus Hook facilities will up their utilization rates to make up ...

The long overdue consolidation in the generic drug industry appears to be in full swing based on about $15 billion in deals announced recently. Teva Pharma (TEVA) is the largest public company in the generic drug industry with a $34.8 billion market cap, which just got even bigger with a $7.5 billion buyout of Barr Pharma (BRL) that follows a smaller $350 million deal announced earlier for Bentley Pharma (BNT). Other recent deals in the generic industry include a $2.7 billion offer for Czech-based Zentiva (which the company has officially rejected as of today) and a $4.6 billion buyout of India-based Ranbaxy (Bombay: 500359) by Daiichi-Sankyo (Tokyo: 4568). However, Teva is not a pure-play on generic drugs as the Company also offers branded and specialty products such as Copaxone for multiple sclerosis.

Other major players that do not trade directly as public companies include …