Finance and Economic

Biotech drug developer Genzyme Corp. said Monday it will share nonpublic information with Sanofi-Aventis SA, eight months after word first leaked that the French pharmaceutical company was pursuing Genzyme.

Both companies were keeping mum Monday about details of the current negotiations, which follow months during which Genzyme repeatedly spurned the Sanofi-Aventis offer of $18.5 billion, saying it was too low.

“The discussions have progressed to a point where our board has authorized them to do due diligence,” said Bo Piela, spokesman for Cambridge, Mass.-based Genzyme.

Piela said Genzyme is not disclosing what information will be shared as part of the confidentiality agreement its board of directors authorized.

Jack Cox, a spokesman for Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis, said the confidentiality agreement allows Sanofi “to take the next step in our ongoing discussion. There’s no guarantee these discussions will actually result in an agreement.”

In trading Monday afternoon, shares of Genzyme rose $2.05, or 2.9 percent, to $73.15, while U.S.-traded shares of Sanofi added 88 cents to $34.23.

Typically, due diligence can take weeks or months. It involves reviewing detailed financial and other information from a potential acquisition target or merger partner.

Sanofi likely would also scrutinize data from studies of Genzyme’s experimental drugs, particularly a promising multiple sclerosis treatment, as well as Genzyme’s manufacturing capabilities.

Genzyme, which develops drugs for rare diseases, had to restructure its manufacturing after viral contamination shut down its suburban Boston factory for a few months in 2009. Genzyme got hit with both a $175 million government fine and a big drop in profit. In November 2009, the Food and Drug Administration found tiny particles of steel, rubber and fiber in some of its drugs.

Sanofi, the world’s fourth-largest drugmaker, last week extended its offer of $69 per share to Feb. 15 from Jan. 21.

Genzyme has argued Sanofi’s offer does not take into account the company’s recovery and its pipeline of potential medicines.

The companies have disagreed about both Genzyme’s overall value and the value of Genzyme’s alemtuzumab, a biologic drug approved for treating leukemia under the brand name Campath. It’s now in late-stage testing for treating multiple sclerosis, and if approved would have the brand name Lemtrada.

The two companies are discussing potential terms, including possibly tying payments to milestones such as the alemtuzumab’s future sales, as a way to reach a resolution.

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Canadians Trading Short Term Gain for Long Term Pain in Media Merger Review

This week the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will hold hearings on Canada

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said he’s becoming more confident that the most “acute” part of the financial crisis is over. He spoke at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland cash advance.

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ST. JOHN

In another sign of a strengthening economy, U.S. companies say they are planning to hire more workers, and expect economic growth to pick up in the first months of 2011, according to a survey released Monday.

The National Association for Business Economics said the hiring outlook for the next six months is at a 12-year high.

"The number of firms expressing positive hiring plans is at a level not seen in over a decade — a sign of improving labor-market dynamics," Shawn DuBravac of the Consumer Electronics Association said in a statement.

Forty-two percent of companies surveyed said they expect to hire more workers in the next six months, a 13% increase over the same time last year. Meanwhile, 51% expect no change in hiring, while only 7% expect a decrease.

The survey of 84 NABE members also showed that industry demand continues to move higher, and profit margins are expanding.

GDP projections are also at moderate to high levels, with 62% of respondents planning for real GDP growth of 2% to 3% in 2011, and one in five expecting GDP growth in the 3% to 4% range.

In total, 82% of respondents expect GDP growth in excess of 2%, a sharp increase over the 54% who expressed the same level of optimism last year.

Respondents were also asked to assess the impact of the sweeping package of tax cuts passed by Congress late last year.

A slight majority of companies surveyed said they expect sales to improve as a result of the package, while 45% said they anticipate the law will have no effect.

Companies are expecting less of a boost in the areas of employment and investment spending, with 68% of firms saying the tax deal will have no effect on hiring, while 37% said it would have a positive effect. Only 1% said hiring would be negatively effected. 

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When Robert Weaver and his wife took ownership of their new home last November, they received a nasty shock.

The previous owner had changed the rental water heater three days before the deal closed, choosing an updated model from Direct Energy.

They decided to have it removed because it didn

When Robert Weaver and his wife took ownership of their new home last November, they received a nasty shock.

The previous owner had changed the rental water heater three days before the deal closed, choosing an updated model from Direct Energy.

They decided to have it removed because it didn

Sometimes it seems there’s only one way for the public to find out what’s really going on inside our most important institutions. And that’s for some juicy document from deep inside their bowels to magically find its way to an enterprising journalist, as if delivered by an occult hand.

The best leaks enlighten and inform us in ways we could not have imagined before. That’s what readers of a Bloomberg News story this week about Freddie Mac and Citigroup Inc. were treated to. Whoever made this leak possible, the public is better off for it.

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As his company name Haft2 Inc. implies, Paul Haft has already run a business. He

China’s real estate prices rose for a 19th month in December, raising concerns that the government will expand curbs to limit the risk of asset bubbles in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Property stocks fell.

Prices in 70 cities rose 6.4 percent in December from a year earlier, the smallest increase in 13 months, according to data from China Information News, the statistics bureau’s newspaper. That’s less than the 7 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of six economists. Prices gained 0.3 percent from November, the newspaper said today.

Home prices increased even as China suspended mortgages for third-home purchases and pledged to speed up trials of real estate taxes. The People’s Bank of China raised interest rates again on Dec. 25, after increasing them for the first time in three years in October.

“Home prices are still rising, especially for existing homes, and that may lead to concerns that the government will continue its tightening of the property market and more cities will impose a limit on home purchases,” said Cathy Yin, an analyst at Shenyin Wanguo Securities Co. in Shanghai. “Investors are using that as a catalyst to sell property stocks.”

Prices of existing homes climbed 0.5 percent in December, the most in three months, according to the report.

Property Stocks Fall

The gauge tracking property stocks on the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slumped 5.4 percent at the close, the most among five industry groups on the measure. China Vanke Co., the nation’s biggest listed developer, lost 7 percent to 8.42 yuan, and Poly Real Estate Group Co., the second biggest, dropped 8.7 percent to 13.60 yuan, the most since April 19.

China’s central bank told lenders on Jan. 14 to hold more deposits as reserves for the fourth time in two months, lifting required ratios by half a percentage point. Premier Wen Jiabao said in a National Radio broadcast on Dec. 26 that measures to curb the country’s property market weren’t well implemented. The government also pledged to almost double the number of affordable housing to 10 million units in 2011.

“Continued increases in prices will worry policy makers, given how unaffordable homes have become,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, economist with Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. The slower price gain in December “is unlikely to be enough to prevent further measures to cool the market,” he said.

Rising Investment

Investment in real-estate development in December rose 12 percent to 557 billion yuan ($84 billion) from a year earlier, according to the report, while full-year investment climbed 33 percent to 4.83 trillion yuan. Property sales increased 22 percent to 1.02 trillion yuan during the month, with 218 million square meters (2.3 billion square feet) of real estate sold, a 12 percent gain from a year earlier, the newspaper said.

“There’s a lot of money in the system, interest rates are close to zero, so it is only natural” that money should be invested in real estate, said Ronnie Chan, chairman of Hang Lung Properties Ltd., Hong Kong’s third-biggest developer by market value which has almost half of its assets in China. “The fact that the government is able to perhaps slow it is a good sign” because it’s “very determined” to contain prices.

Sanya, a resort city on Hainan island in China’s south, posted the biggest price advance in December among the 70 cities monitored, with values rising 43 percent from a year earlier. That’s followed by 36 percent gain in Haikou, the capital city of the island province.

Meeting Targets

Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong province, and Quanzhou, a city in Fujian province, reported the smallest prices gains among the 70 cities, each rising 0.4 percent in December from a year earlier.

“The growth slowed because developers didn’t dare to raise prices in fear of more government curbs,” said Jinsong Du, head of property research for Credit Suisse Group AG. “Many developers launched more homes in the market last month to meet their annual sales target.”

Today’s numbers came after private data indicated higher sales in December. SouFun Holdings Ltd., the country’s biggest real-estate website owner, said home prices in 100 cities it monitors advanced 0.9 percent in December from November, the biggest gain for at least six months.

China Vanke said revenue jumped 71 percent last year to 108 billion yuan, becoming the first developer in China to exceed sales of 100 billion yuan, a target it earlier set for 2014. Shanghai-based Shimao Property Holdings Ltd. said 2010 sales rose 34 percent to 30.5 billion yuan, and set a target of 36 billion yuan for this year.

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