* In talks to sell interest for between $1.3-1.5 bln-source * Talks continuing, deal could be announced on Monday-source * Heritage looking to pay a special dividend-report By Quentin Webb and Julie Crust LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) – British oil explorer Heritage Oil ( HOIL.L ) ( HOC.TO ) is in talks to sell its Ugandan assets to Italian oil group Eni SpA ( ENI.MI ) for between $1.3-1.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday Talks are continuing and a deal could be announced as early as Monday, the person said. Heritage is examining paying a special dividend to return some of the proceeds to shareholders, the person added. The Sunday Times reported that Heritage will pay a special dividend of 90 pence to 100 pence per share, citing no sources. Heritage Chief Executive Tony Buckingham, who previously ran companies which hired out mercenaries in Africa, could get about 84 million pounds ($126 million) from his 33 percent stake in the company, the paper said. Heritage, which is in talks with Turkey’s Genel Energy regarding a proposed $6 billion merger, is the operator and holds a 50 percent interest in two licences in Uganda. The fields are estimated to contain more than 700 million barrels of gross resources. Tullow Oil ( TLW.L ) holds the remainder of the two licences located in the Albert Basin, close to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is looking to sell up to 50 percent of its stake. A spokeswoman for Eni declined to comment, while Heritage could not be reached. On Tuesday, Heritage said merger talks with Genel were ongoing and that it hoped to reach a formal agreement before the end of the year. [ID:nL0122820] It also said it was planning for early commercialisation of the Ugandan oil resources, with potential first production in 2011. (Editing by Jon Loades-Carter) ($1=.6645 Pound) ((julie.crust@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 3847)) Read the r est here: Heritage, Eni close to $1.5 bln Uganda deal-source

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BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi official says insurgent attacks caused a 4 percent drop in the country’s oil exports in October compared to the previous month, but that revenues were up due to higher prices. Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad says exports averaged 1.877 million barrels a day in October, grossing $4.187 billion with an average price of $71.94 a barrel. September oil exports stood at 1.956 million barrels a day and yielded $3.877 billion with an average price of $66.05 a barrel. Jihad told The Associated Press Sunday the slip in exports was due to two insurgent attacks on the pipeline that sends crude to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, causing a nine-day disruption. Oil sales account for about 95 percent of Iraq’s total revenue. Read the original: Iraq’s Oct. oil exports drop due to attacks (AP)

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* Rothschild’s Sachak bags Ferrero role * Hershey bankers include Buffett’s chosen Trott * Hershey and Ferrero considering joint Cadbury bid By Victoria Howley and Jessica Hall LONDON/PHILADELPHIA, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Akeel Sachak, global head of the consumer team at Rothschild, may get a seat at the table for this year’s sweetest deal after all. Goldman Sachs ( GS.N ), Morgan Stanley ( MS.N ) and UBS ( UBSN.VX ) secured the coveted roles defending Cadbury ( CBRY.L ) against Kraft’s ( KFT.N ) $16.7 billion hostile offer, but the Rothschild rainmaker is now advising Italy’s Ferrero as it looks at the British chocolatier and could spark a bidding war. He’ll be in good company if U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co ( HSY.N ), which is also considering a bid for Cadbury and has held talks with Ferrero about a joint offer, steps into the frame. Hershey’s advisers include Warren Buffett’s chosen banker Byron Trott and, for some proxy celebrity pizzazz, Jamie Grant, the older brother of actor Hugh Grant. “This is the situation everyone wants to be involved in. It is the biggest bid in London and the consumer sector. It is what everyone is talking about,” said a head of UK investment banking at a top London firm. Sachak, who joined Rothschild after leaving Oxford University, brings insight to his appointment for the secretive, family-owned Ferrero, the maker of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Nutella chocolate spread. Ferrero has yet to make an acquisition in its 60-year history. Sachak has worked for Cadbury on a number of acquisitions and has advised other companies that have bought some of the confectioner’s assets. He helped Cadbury cement its position as one of the leading players in the high margin global gum business, when it gobbled up Turkey’s Intergum for $450 million in 2007. That experience could be vital if Ferrero plans to take Cadbury’s gum and candy division, a unit worth around $7.4 billion, according to media reports. He was also an architect of Cadbury’s purchase of Orangina for 700 million euros in 2001, which helped scale up the company’s French and German soft drinks business after Coca-Cola Co ( KO.N ) was blocked from buying the assets on competition grounds a year earlier. Sachak flipped sides five years later, advising private equity firms Blackstone Group and Lion Capital on the acquisition of Orangina for around $2.6 billion.   Continued… See the original post: Rothschild star and Buffett banker circle Cadbury

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BRUSSELS (AP) — The long-delayed prototype of Airbus’ first military transport plane has been moved from the factory for final ground tests before its maiden flight next month, a spokeswoman said Friday. AP – In this undated photo released by Airbus, workers pose in front of the first A400 in Seville, Spain. … Barbara Kracht said the testing in Seville, Spain, will involve running up problem-plagued turboprop engines to full power, low- and high-speed taxiing, and aborted takeoffs designed to check all aircraft systems before the first flight. “All this paves the way for the first flight before the end of the year,” Kracht said in a telephone interview. The four-engine A400M, launched in 2003 with an order for a fleet of 180 planes from seven governments, is Europe’s most ambitious collaborative defense project ever. But the euro20 billion ($29 billion) program has been hit by cost overruns and teething problems with the new Europrop International TP400 engines, and the plane’s maiden flight has been postponed repeatedly. Earlier this year defense ministers from the seven nations — Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey — agreed to re-negotiate the contract on the multinational project. Airbus’ A400M is smaller and less capable than the U.S. Boeing C-17 Globemaster II, but it may eventually have greater export potential because it is much cheaper than the U.S. transport plane. Although Airbus’ main production facility is in Toulouse, France, the A400M’s final assembly line is in Seville. It is designed to replace hundreds of smaller Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Franco-German Transall C-160 transports that have served in the inventories of European air forces since the 1960s. In the meantime, European nations have chartered Antonov An-124 transport aircraft from a Russian-Ukrainian joint-venture to serve as their strategic reserve in supplying troops in Afghanistan. The new airlifter program was launched in the 1990s in the wake of the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia, when European countries couldn’t dispatch peacekeepers to a region right on their own doorstep without American assistance. The A400M is specifically designed to operate from austere, unpaved and short airstrips. The plane’s maximum cargo capacity of 37 tons is nearly double that of its predecessors, and its range of over 6,000 kilometers (3,200 miles) would allow it to fly unrefueled from Europe to forward airstrips in far-flung theaters of operations such as Afghanistan or Africa. But problems with the engines and the prototype’s weight have pushed first deliveries — originally scheduled for 2012 — to slip to 2014. Although it will be one of the largest turboprop-powered aircraft ever built, the A400M is still dwarfed by the Soviet Antonov An-24 Antei first flown in the 1960s. Several dozen remain in Russian air force service. Read more: Airbus military transporter cleared for testing (AP)

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That said, by studying these funds investors can pick out trends — and then decide whether they have staying power or not. Over a dozen of the funds on our larger list are classified as emerging-market offerings. T. Rowe Price Emerging Europe and Mediterranean ( TREMX ), for instance, is up a whopping 113% this year. This concentrated fund invests over half its assets in Russia, 17% in Turkey and almost 7% in Egypt. Several Matthews funds concentrating on India, China and Korea are up big, too. These funds have benefitted from investors willing to take on more risk as the market shows signs of improvement and from the general rise in commodities prices. If either of those pillars is shaken, though, the returns could easily cool off. Visit link: 15 Funds on a 30% Run in 2009

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