Halliburton in play

Halliburton, the energy services giant, has tabled a £1.7 billion all-cash counter-proposal for its rival, Expro International, according to a report. It follows a £1.6 billion cash offer from Umbrellastream, a consortium of Candover, Goldman Sachs, Capital Partners and AlpInvest.

NRG bids for Calpine

NRG Energy, the American power wholesaler, has offered to buy Calpine, its troubled rival, for $11.3billion (£5.7billion) in shares. The bid, valued at $22.98 per share when tabled on May 14, closed on Wednesday valued at $22.70 per share. NRG estimated it would have to acquire about 500million Calpine shares, putting the cost at $11.3 billion, based on Wednesday's value. (AP)

Gaz de France inquiry

The European Commission has begun an antitrust inquiry into Gaz de France, the French gas company, over alleged gas supply restrictions. Europe will focus on behaviour, which may prevent or reduce competition on supply markets for natural gas in France. It added that it suspected GdF's actions breached European Union rules on abuse of dominant position and restrictive business practices. (Thomson Financial)

Italy goes nuclear

The new centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi is to return Italy to nuclear power, reversing a 20-year moratorium. Claudio Scajola, the Industry Minister, said that the construction of nuclear plants would begin during the present legislature, which is expected to last a full five years. He said: “We can no longer put off an action plan to return to nuclear power.” (Richard Owen)

German discussions

Allianz, the German insurer, and Commerzbank are in talks over a €10 billion (£7.9 billion) bid for Deutsche Postbank, the country’s largest retail bank, to create a national retail banking champion, according to reports. Allianz plans to combine its Dresdner Bank retail bank with the two rivals. Spokesmen for Allianz, Postbank and Commerzbank declined to comment. (Susan Thompson)

Reclamation project

Nigeria is attempting to reclaim almost $2 billion (£1 billion) in unpaid taxes and revenues from Shell and ExxonMobil. Emmanuel Egbogah, the chairman of a government committee reviewing contracts covering offshore oilfields signed in the early 1990s, said in an interview yesterday that he was “very confident” that his country would recover “the money owed to us”. (Susan Thompson)

Scrutiny on Moody's

The US Securities and Exchange Commission should move swiftly to investigate a reported coding error by Moody's that may have led to incorrect ratings of complex European debt products, Senator Charles Schumer, of New York, said. “They have to move fast because when there's no confidence in the fairness of the credit rating agency, it hurts the entire economy,” he said.

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