A round-up of today's business news stories in brief

Sales fall 14% at Irish unit of Premier Foods

A difficult Irish grocery market resulted in sales at Premier Foods sliding in the third quarter of the year, writes Ciara O'Brien.

In an interim management statement, Premier Foods, which owns well-known brands such as Erin and Chivers, said sales at its Irish business fell 14 per cent in the 13 weeks to September 26th compared to the same period last year.

However, sales for the total grocery division of the group were up 2 per cent on the same period last year, and 5 per cent ahead for the first nine months of the year.

Overall sales for the group, which includes the chilled division and Hovis, rose 1 per cent in the third quarter and 3 per cent in the first nine months of the year.

“We are pleased by the progress that the business has made in a tough trading environment,” said chief executive Robert Schofield.

Google to open online e-book store

Google plans to open an online store to deliver electronic books to any device with a web browser, threatening to upset a burgeoning market for dedicated e-readers dominated by Amazon’s Kindle.

The web search giant said it would launch Google editions in the first half of next year, initially offering about half a million e-books in partnership with publishers with whom it already co-operates where they have digital rights.

Readers will be able to buy e-books either from Google or from other online stores such as Amazon.com. Google will host the e-books and make them searchable. – Reuters

Tullow Oil makes discovery in Ghana

Exploration group Tullow Oil has made a discovery at an appraisal well off Ghana.

The Mahogany-4 well, in the West Points licence area off the coast of Ghana, encountered 43m (141ft) of light oil columns in sandstone reservoirs.

Mahogany-4, in which Tullow has a 23 per cent stake, is the eastern-most well it has drilled in the Jubilee field. The rest of the well is held by partners including Kosmos Energy and Anadarko Petroleum.

Oil bearing sands yielded 15m of net pay in the main Jubilee reservoirs. Below these, drilling uncovered 20m of net oil pay in new sand, a 4m gas sand and 4m of net oil pay in Mahogany reservoirs.

Xstrata drops pursuit of rival

Mining group Xstrata dropped its pursuit of rival Anglo American yesterday after many Anglo shareholders rejected a “merger of equals” proposal and demanded a premium.

Xstrata said it believed in the strategic rationale of a merger with Anglo American, but was being “disciplined” and had left the door open to resume its wooing of Anglo American later.

British regulators issued a “put up or shut up” ruling last week forcing Xstrata to either make a formal offer by October 20th or walk away for six months. – (Reuters)