Associated British Foods has bought the polyols business of Lonza for undisclosed terms in order to expand its US-based SPI Polyols division.... [more]

Unilever is to sell European Bakery Supplies Business to CSM of the Netherlands for £440m and is now said be looking to sell the recently-acquired Bestfoods consumer bakery division... [more]

Wade Furniture Group has sold its consumer division to JDP Furniture for undisclosed terms which will involve the transfer of 850 staff. ... [more]

ASW is selling its 86% stake in SAM its French wire rods subsidiary for £82m in order to focus on its UK plants in Cardiff and Sheerness... [more]

Hanson is to acquire Birchwood Concrete Products from YJL for £8.5m and YJL is expected to use the proceeds to fund future acquisitions... [more]

Oxford Molecular is selling Cambridge Discovery Chemistry to Millennium Pharmaceuticals for £35m in order to reduce debt... [more]

Orange has acquired Ananova the Press Association's new media division for £95m leaving PA to focus on the wholesale supply of news and information... [more]

Paramount is selling its chain of 145 pubs to Royal Bank of Scotland's KUC subsidiary for £20m... [more]

BAE Systems is to acquire the US-based control systems business of Lockheed Martin for £320m and is also interested in a number of electronics operations being auctioned by Lockheed... [more]

Standard Chartered is to acquire banking group Grindlays from its Australian parent ANZ for £823m in order to become the leading international bank in India Pakistan and Bangladesh... [more]

Invensys has sold Westinghouse Brakes the rail industry supplier to Germany's Knorr-Bremse for £65m... [more]

Wolseley is selling a number of manufacturing businesses to Cinven for up to £136m including agricultural industrial motor cable and photographic operations... [more]

Barclays has sold its Dial car leasing business to ABN Amro for £269m in order to withdraw from the rapidly consolidating market.... [more]

Alstom has bought Norweb Contracting from United Utilities for £25m as part of a strategy to develop a one-stop shop for electrical services... [more]

WR Group the Leicester-based refrigeration company has bought NRC's supermarket services and maintenance business in Wellingborough from Stratagem Group for undisclosed terms... [more]

Rentokil is to sell its US plant hire business to Ashtead for £320m and the proceeds will be used to fund a share buy-back programme... [more]

Pure Asphalt of Bolton has bought the mastic asphalt division of TotalFina in order to increase its UK market share to 25%... [more]

Tate & Lyle is to sell its US grains business to JD Keiskell for about £35m prompting speculation that its US sugar business could be sold next... [more]

Biwater Industries the pipeline manufacturing subsidiary of the Biwater group has been acquired by St Gobain of France for undisclosed terms. ... [more]

Alvis is selling a division that manufacturers bomb disposal robots to Northrop Grumman of the US for £1.4m and job losses are expected among the 31 Coventry-based workers... [more]