In Short

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

Oil price falls $1 as Iran offers talks

Oil fell more than $1 (€0.78) yesterday, as world powers studied Iran's offer of more talks to resolve a nuclear dispute that could lead to sanctions against the fourth-largest oil exporter.

An unexpected rise in stockpiles of petrol and heating fuel in the US added further pressure. US crude was $1.15 lower at $71.95 a barrel, while London Brent crude dropped $1.22 to $72.02. - (Reuters)

Icelandic bond sale totals $2.25bn

Landsbanki, Iceland's third-largest bank, has sold the largest ever bond issue from the country's finance houses with a $2.25 billion (€1.75 billion) two-tranche sale.

The deal proved that Iceland's banks still had access to the capital markets following the turmoil in local stocks and bonds earlier this year over concern about an overheating economy, said Leo-Hendrik Greve at Citigroup, which led the sale along with Bank of America and Deutsche Bank.

Icelandic banks have been shut out of international capital markets since February, when investors first reacted to the country's economic problems.

Landsbanki said the sale "addressed the concerns expressed by some market participants regarding the short-term refinancing risk of the bank".

The bank had targeted a sale of at least $1 billion worth of notes, but had generated more than $3.6 billion of demand, Mr Greve said, adding that the deal's success meant that the European bond markets would be likely to reopen to Icelandic banks. - (Financial Times service)

IBM buys software firm for $1.3bn

IBM took one of the most dramatic steps in its attempt to overhaul its slow-growing services business yesterday by announcing a $1.3 billion (€1 billion) software acquisition that will further erode the barriers between its services and software divisions.

The all-cash purchase of Internet Security Systems (ISS) reflects an acceleration in IBM's use of acquisitions to lift its presence in some of the fastest-growing segments of the information technology market as it battles to revive its flagging growth rate.

IBM agreed to pay $28 a share for ISS, an 8 per cent premium to its closing price the day before. - (Financial Times service)

Lucent formalises bid from Alcatel

Lucent Technologies yesterday said it filed a formal notice to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States seeking approval for its $10.4 billion (€8.13 billion) purchase by France's Alcatel.

Alcatel also began meetings with investors to secure backing for the deal at shareholders' meetings on September 7th.

The value of the deal has dropped about 23 per cent since it was announced in April amid a drop in the equipment companies' stock prices.

The deal has passed anti-trust scrutiny in the US and Europe, but the review by the foreign investment committee is critical. - (Financial Times service)

Aerospace firm denies delays

European aerospace firm EADS reiterated yesterday that the Airbus A400M military transport plane was on schedule, denying a report of delays in a French newspaper.

"We are sticking to the timetable," said EADS spokesman Christian Poppe. Shares in EADS traded 2.2 per cent lower after French business newspaper La Tribune said the A400M was suffering from delays of up to 24 months. - (Reuters)