European stocks extended last week's advance after Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. offered to buy Alliance Boots Plc for $18.8 billion and Akzo Nobel NV said it will sell its drug division.
Smith & Nephew Plc climbed on plans to buy Plus Orthopedics Holding AG to become the world's fourth-largest maker of orthopedic reconstruction products. SIG Holding AG gained after Rank Group raised its offer for the Swiss company by 18 percent.
``There is a lot of private equity money waiting to be invested and the opportunities are not that numerous,'' said Lucy MacDonald, chief investment officer of global equities at RCM in London, which oversees $100 billion. ``That will hold up corporate valuations this year.''
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added 0.7 percent to 369.77 as of 8:35 a.m. in London, advancing for the fifth day. The Stoxx 50 climbed 0.5 percent, and the Euro Stoxx 50, a measure for the 13 nations sharing the euro, also increased 0.5 percent.
Stocks last week had their best performance this year after companies including E.ON AG and Suez SA reported earnings that topped analysts' estimates. The Stoxx 600 has recouped more than a third of its losses in a five-day global rout triggered on Feb. 27 by a sell- off in Chinese equities and disappointing U.S. economic reports.
Japanese shares increased for a third day today. Exporters including Sony Corp. paced gains after the yen weakened the most in eight months against the dollar in New York. U.S. stock-index futures advanced.
The yen had strengthened 4.5 percent against the dollar during the nine trading sessions to March 7 as a rout in stocks worldwide caused investors to sell risky assets and repay the yen denominated debts used to fund those investments, a practice known as the carry trade. The yen gained 4.2 percent against the euro during the same period.
National benchmarks rose in all of the 16 western European markets that were open. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent as did Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40.
Boots, Akzo Nobel
Alliance Boots rose 5.8 percent to 983.5 pence. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina offered 9.7 billion pounds ($18.8 billion) for the largest U.K. drugstore chain.
Shares of the Nottingham, England-based retailer, formed last year in a merger between Alliance Unichem and Boots Group, surged 14 percent March 9 after the company said it had been approached, without disclosing the suitor or price. KKR and Pessina said after trading ended that they may bid 10 pounds a share, 7.5 percent above the close, in Europe's biggest buyout.
Akzo Nobel jumped 18 percent to 54.75. The Dutch chemical and pharmaceutical maker said it will sell Organon BioSciences, which produces Marvelon birth-control pills, to Schering-Plough Corp., a U.S. pharmaceutical maker, for 11 billion euros ($14 billion). The shares hadn't started trading.
Smith & Nephew
Smith & Nephew rose 1.1 percent to 622 pence. Europe's largest maker of knee and shoulder implants, agreed to buy Plus Orthopedics Holding AG for 1.086 billion Swiss francs ($880 million) in cash and debt to gain artificial hips and knees. The purchase will make Smith & Nephew the world's fourth-largest maker of orthopedic reconstruction products, with about 12 percent of the market.
SIG gained 0.6 percent to 447 francs. Rank Group raised its offer for SIG to 435 Swiss francs a share and announced it holds 22 percent of the packaging company, SonntagsZeitung reported on March 11.
Deutsche Telekom AG gained 1 percent to 12.70 euros after UBS AG raised its recommendation for shares of Europe's largest phone company to ``neutral'' from ``reduce.''
Bovis Homes Group Plc rose 0.6 to 1,152 pence. The U.K. Homebuilder said full-year profit rose 17 percent to 95 million pounds ($184 million), or 79.5 pence a share, buoyed by demand for flats and houses in the south east of England. Revenue jumped 15 percent to 597.3 million pounds.
source:www.bloomberg.com
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