Lafarge (LAFP.PA) and Holcim (HOLN.VX) are about to request approval from the European Commission for their planned merger, Lafarge Chief Executive Bruno Lafont told reporters on Thursday.
Industry
Yen rises as global growth woes hit risk sentiment
The yen scaled a one-month high against the dollar on Monday, as heightened worries about the health of the global economy continued to shore up the safe-haven Japanese currency.
China September exports, imports beat forecasts
China's export and import performance in September easily beat forecasts, with imports showing unexpected buoyancy, helping to ease concerns about deteriorating domestic demand in the world's second-biggest economy.
Trade engine shifts down just as global growth needs a boost
Policymakers scrambling to keep the world economy from settling into the "new mediocre" of sluggish growth can no longer rely on global trade to do the heavy lifting.
Euro zone seeks to soften German opposition to stimulus spending
France and Italy will keep pressure on Germany this week to use government money to revive the euro zone's stagnating economy but in a sign of inertia, a promised list of projects to create growth will not be ready until December.
Latest News
The chance of a hard landing for China's economy is very small in spite of worries about the country's real-estate sector, the chief economist of the People's Bank of China said on Saturday.
When a guesthouse belonging to one of Nigeria's leading Christian pastors collapsed last month, killing 115 mostly South African pilgrims, attention focused on the multimillion-dollar "megachurches" that form a huge, untaxed sector of Africa's top economy.
A sculpture of a goddess riding a chariot and a limestone bust of a woman's head upon which the sculptor Modigliani used to light candles are the centerpieces of an eye-popping 500 million pounds ($800 million) of art put on show at Sotheby's on Friday.
Air France-KLM is pressing ahead with expansion of its low cost brand in France and has a back-up plan if a deadlock with pilots continues, its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alexandre de Juniac said in an interview published on Sunday.
The $700 trillion financial derivatives industry has agreed to a fundamental rule change from January to help regulators to wind down failed banks without destabilising markets.
The hunt for dividend yield is pushing U.S. fund managers into an unproven new offshoot of the alternative energy industry. Yield companies - commonly called "yieldcos" - are spinoffs of alternative energy companies that own assets such as wind or solar farms and pay investors dividends out of the cash flow generated by long-term contracts to sell power to utility companies.
Federal Reserve officials on Saturday took stock of a slowdown in the global economy and said it could delay an increase in U.S. interest rates if serious enough.
The International Monetary Fund's member countries on Saturday said bold action was needed to bolster the global economic recovery and they urged governments not to squelch growth by tightening budgets too drastically, although Germany poured cold water on the idea of a new global "crisis."
Airbus took a step on Friday toward opening a second plant in China by signing a letter of intent with Chinese authorities to set up a cabin completion center for its wide-body A330 jets.
