Business this week: 10th - 16th September 2005

From The Economist print edition

Ford agreed to sell Hertz, its car-rental subsidiary, to a consortium of three private-equity firms for $5.6 billion (including debt, the transaction is worth $15 billion). Last June, the carmaker filed papers to float Hertz on the stockmarket, but a number of buy-out specialists expressed a strong interest in buying it directly instead. The sale provides some much needed liquidity for Ford—its credit rating was downgraded to “junk” status earlier this year.Link

Oracle announced another large acquisition. It is buying Siebel Systems, a rival business software company, in a deal valued at $5.8 billion. Siebel is Oracle's biggest takeover since its recent contentious merger with PeopleSoft.

Wachovia agreed to pay $3.9 billion for Westcorp, a financial-services holding company (the deal includes the 16% stake in WFS Financial, a car-loan company, that Westcorp does not already own). America's fourth-largest bank will double its car-financing business, and also gain a toehold in southern California's retail-banking market—another Westcorp subsidiary is Western Financial Bank.

Deutsche Börse asked Reto Francioni, chairman of SWX Group, which runs the Swiss stock exchange, to be its new chief executive. The German financial-exchange group has been seeking a new boss since May, when Werner Seifert was ousted by shareholders dissatisfied with a bid for the London Stock Exchange.

Banca Popolare Italiana said that it had approved the sale of its 29.5% stake in Banca Antonveneta to ABN Amro, of the Netherlands. The sale would seal the first significant foreign takeover of an Italian bank, and end a controversial battle that has lasted several months.


Following Junichiro Koizumi's election win, Japan's Nikkei 225 stockmarket index reached a four-year high (though this is still a long way from its peak in late 1989). Markets were also buoyed by an upward revision to Japan's second-quarter GDP growth, which stands at an annualised rate of 3.3%.