Johnson & Johnson to make $30bn deal

ZURICH: US pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson on Thursday announced it was buying Europe’s biggest bio-pharmaceutical firm Actelion for $30 billion (27.9bn euros) in a deal that creates a new spin-off company.

The world’s biggest producer of healthcare goods will acquire all the outstanding shares of Switzerland-based Actelion for $280 per share, the two companies said in a joint statement.

With the deal, which has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to be finalised by the middle of the year, Actelion will receive a 46-per cent premium on its average share price over the past 60 days and a 23 per cent premium on its closing price on Wednesday.—AFP

Oman inks $1.2bn port deal with Nippon Steel

MUSCAT: Petroleum Development Oman signed Thursday a $1.2 billion deal with Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal (NSSM) to further develop the southern port of Duqm, a statement and official media said.

Under the five-year deal, PDO would obtain from Nippon Steel “piping for its drilling operations” and “a new supply yard in the Duqm Special Economic Zone,” the Omani company said in a statement.

Oman announced in 2008 plans to build a port and shipyard in Duqm, on the Indian Ocean, to handle ultra-large crude carriers and compete with Dubai’s Jebel Ali free zone.—AFP

Apple fight with Qualcomm spreads to China

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple on Wednesday took its legal war with Qualcomm to China, filing lawsuits there accusing the chip-making giant of illegally wielding monopoly power.

The smartphone giant confirmed the suits and referred AFP to comments it released when it filed an antitrust suit against Qualcomm in the United States last week.

“For many years, Qualcomm has unfairly insisted on charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with,” California-based Apple said in the statement.—AFP

Prizes for using NBP remittance service

KARACHI: National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) distributed prizes among customers in Sialkot for using its services to receive remittances.

Prizes included motorbikes, TVs, gold bars and laptops.

Earlier, similar ceremonies were held in different cities, including Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Abbottabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Multan, Mardan, Muzaffarabad, Faisalabad and Peshawar.

The ceremony in Sialkot concluded the prize distribution for NBP’s Ramazan Promotional Campaign 2016 in which a total of 380 customers won prizes worth millions of rupees.—Staff Reporter

Telenor nominated for awards

ISLAMABAD:Telenor Pakistan has been nominated for the prestigious GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2017 for the fifth consecutive year, a press release said.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017