In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Britain's economy grew at fastest pace in nine years in Q2

Britain’s economy grew at its fastest pace in nine years in the second quarter of 2010 and growth in the first three months of the year was revised slightly higher, official data showed yesterday.

The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product grew 1.2 per cent in the three months to June in line with economists’ forecasts.

Construction output surged 9.5 per cent during the second quarter, its fastest rate of expansion since 1963.

The figures suggest Britain’s economy bounced back strongly from its deepest recession since the second World War. – (Reuters)

Providence takes on Celtic Sea partner   

Irish oil and gas exploration firm Providence Resources has agreed to farm down up to a 65 per cent equity interest in the Nemo heavy oil discovery to Nautical Petroleum, writes Ciara O'Brien. The discovery is in the North Celtic Sea Basin offshore Ireland, underlying the Ardmore gas accumulation.

Nautical will take a 25 per cent initial stake and will fund and carry out a development feasibility programme. It will have the option to increase this stake to 65 per cent and drill a well.

Providence now holds a 72.5 per cent interest in Nemo. Its partners, Atlantic Petroleum and Sosina Exploration, have stakes of 18.3 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively.

Facebook may go public after 2012

Social networking site Facebook is likely to go public some time after late 2012, a board member has said, satisfying investor appetite for a slice of one of the internet's biggest growth stories.

A stock market debut by a company valued in the tens of billions of dollars would be the most highly anticipated initial public offerings of the decade.

However Facebook board member, venture capitalist and PayPal co- founder Peter Thiel, said yesterday that would not happen until after late 2012. It would depend on the company hitting revenue targets and how its business model developed.

Facebook is privately held and has released only nuggets of financial information. – (Reuters)