The rest of today's stories in brief

Aviva drops £17bn bid for Prudential

Insurer Aviva yesterday dropped its £17 billion (€24.6 billion) bid proposal for rival British Prudential after failing to win over the board of its closest rival.

"In coming to its decision, the board of Aviva determined that it was not in the best interests of its shareholders to make any material adjustment to its proposed terms," Aviva said in a statement.

Aviva, which is the parent of Hibernian insurance, added that it reserved the right to make an offer if Prudential changed its mind or if a third party announced a firm intention to bid for Prudential. - (Reuters)

Menolly makes new appointments

Housebuilder Menolly has appointed Bord Gáis chief financial officer Pat Dalton to the same position in the construction group.

Brendan Byrne, senior financial controller at Menolly for the past seven years, has been appointed as a director of the group.

Orders for durable US goods up 2.6%

New orders for US-made durable goods rose 2.6 per cent in February, twice market expectations, as civilian aircraft orders bounced back from a January decline, a US government report showed yesterday.

But when the 13.4 per cent surge in transportation orders was excluded, orders for durable goods fell 1.3 per cent, well below Wall Street forecasts for a 0.9 per cent rise. The drop broke a three-month string of increases in orders for durable goods outside of transportation.

Orders for non-defence aircraft climbed 52.5 per cent after a 70.1 per cent drop in January, powering the transportation sector higher.

Durable goods inventories fell 0.5 per cent in February, the largest one-month decline since November 2003. - (Reuters)

House of Fraser meets forecasts

Department store chain House of Fraser met forecasts with a 4.6 per cent rise in annual profit and said yesterday that current trading was ahead of original expectations, buoyed by recent acquisitions.

House of Fraser, which announced last week that offer talks for the company had ended three weeks after revealing an approach, said like-for-like sales had turned positive in the latest four-week period as Mothers Day sales kicked in.

"We previously expected trading during the first half of 2006 to be difficult. We are pleased that the first seven weeks have been ahead of our original expectations," chief executive John Coleman said.

House of Fraser made a profit before tax and exceptional items of £27.3 million (€38.5 million) in the 52 weeks to January 28th on sales up 11 per cent to £1.01 billion. Full-year like-for-like sales fell 3.9 per cent. - (Reuters)

Oil over $64 a barrel amid supply woes

Oil held above $64 (€53.18) a barrel after hitting a near seven-week high yesterday as renewed supply woes in Nigeria increased expectations of prolonged outages in Africa's largest producer.

Oil in New York surged 3.5 per cent on Thursday after Italian energy firm Eni said it could not honour crude oil export commitments from its Nigerian Brass River terminal, after a pipeline attack last week.

US light crude for May delivery was up 69 cents at $64.60 a barrel yesterday. It hit a peak of $64.75 earlier in the day, the highest since February 7th. London Brent crude was up 45 cents at $63.72 after a surge of $1.76 the day before. - (Reuters)