John Stepek (Money Week UK): Deal making is back!

That was the general reaction from the press when US food giant Kraft launched its first bid for British confectioner Cadbury less than two months ago. Pundits spewed out potential target prices like bingo numbers – £8, no £10, no £12! – and analysts scribbled out scenarios involving white knights and rival bidders from across the globe.

Reality has been a little more disappointing. Despite attempts to talk up the deal, no rival bidders have come forth. And yesterday Kraft came back to the table with an offer that can only be described as – as Cadbury’s board put it – ‘derisory’.

It’s just another sign that there’s a vast gap between conditions in the financial world and those in the ‘real’ world…

Market hopes are stretched far beyond reality The Cadbury / Kraft bid saga shows just how far market hopes

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Chinese fast food chain Youghe King, currently a subsidiary of the Philippine fast food giant Jollibee, has opened its first chain restaurant in Tianjin. Located in Tianjin's Longmen Building in front of the city's railway station, the new Yonghe King restaurant covers an area of 350 square meters. With nearly one hundred seats, the restaurant serves [...]

Japanese fast food chain Yoshinoya Holdings has signed a cooperative memorandum with the Taiwanese food giant Ting Hsin International Group to set up a joint venture for expansion in the Chinese mainland. The two parties will jointly invest at least CNY100 million in this new joint venture, which is expected to be formally launched in September [...]

Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov says there will be no tax raises on individual incomes during the crisis, but the government plans to introduce an increase on gas extraction tax for businesses.  The Moscow Times looks the construction firms of Pikalyovo whose problems were not resolved by Putin's visit.  As manufacturing shrunk in May, wage arrears grew by 10.8%.   Rusal has managed to negotiate a much more favorable rate in restructuring its $7.4 billion debt to foreign banks than other companies.  Novolipetsk Steel controller Vladimir Lisin has bought the radio station Business FM.  The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has canceled $38.5 million worth of contracts for state orders because of typographical issues.   The Wall Street Journal reports on the opening of the first Carrefour in Russia. Apparently the French food giant has suspended ...

The international fast food giant McDonald's has announced that following a one year trial in Shanghai, it will launch its 24-hour delivery service in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. In addition, the company will start to develop this service in other Chinese cities including Wuhan, Nanjing, and Tianjin. McDonald's has promised that each delivery will be completed within [...]

Russia may allow the ruble to strengthen at least another 6.7% against its exchange rate basket as the country moves towards free floating the currency before its 2011 target.  Bloomberg features a video interview with Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia's central bank.  Oleg Deripaska's holding company Basic Element has denied that it is looking for a buyer for its construction wing, Glavstroi.  'We have long said that we want to attract a partner for some of our businesses, and we might consider the sale of certain specific projects'.  GAZ has confirmed that it is interested in creating a joint venture with Magna and Opel, although the company has suggested it is not actively involved in the bidding.  If the deal goes ahead, GAZ has said that it would produce Opel cars in Russia in ...

Companies highlighted in this weekly wrap include Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM), McDonald's Corp. (MCD), Procter & Gamble Co. (PG), Harris Corp. (HRS) and L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. (LLL)

< ?DART(15);?> Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (ADM) has seen bullish earnings estimate revisions from analysts, including a 3% boost in past week.

Estimates are in the Rise

For the year ending June 2009, the consensus estimate continues to stand at $3.40 per share as was the case when ADM was featured as Growth and Income in late December. Three months, ago Wall Street was forecasting $2.46 per share. The most accurate estimate is a more bullish $4.00 per share.

While the following year's forecast of $2.79 per share is lower than the aforementioned $3.40, ADM has a more recent upward revision of 3%, which occurred over the just the past week. The most accurate projection

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According to the latest from Sing Tao News, two of Hong Kong's main retail chains, Mannings and Wellcome, have removed milk powder made by Swiss food giant Nestle from their shelves after a newspaper reported that samples contained the industrial chemical melamine. The test was commissioned by Hong Kong's Apple Daily and the result showed that [...]

Weight Watchers International,the weight management company, has opened its first outlets in Shanghai. Weight Watchers Danone (China) Weight Loss Consultation Company owned by a joint venture between Weight Watchers International, and Groupe Danone, the food giant, has launched its first weight management services pilot centers in the heart of Shanghai. David Kirchoff president and CEO of Weight [...]

It was a brutal day for stocks as the euphoria from the Fannie and Freddie bailout dissipated in response to renewed concerns about weakness in the financial sector. The Dow dropped 280 points to close at 11,231.

Lehman Brothers Inc. (LEH) spooked the market when word spread that the troubled investment bank's negotiations with Korea Development Bank had stalled. Lehman has been aggressively pursuing additional capital in order to provide protection against deteriorating assets and strengthen its balance sheet. Lehman shares were down more than 40% on the day.

The downtrend in the overall market and financial sector was hastened by American Insurance Group, Inc (AIG), as investors speculated that the world's largest insurer would also need to raise more capital to protect itself from exposure to mortgage related assets. AIG has already posted $20 billion in losses over the last three quarters and raised $20

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