Business news in brief: Glencore | Graff | Lloyd’s | Greek sex industry

A roundup of today’s business news

Glencore closes in on Xstrata takeover

Glencore will this week move into the final stage of its long-awaited £19 billion takeover of miner Xstrata as shareholders are sent detailed documents on the deal ahead of a July vote.

Glencore, which already owns almost 34 per cent of the miner, is offering 2.8 new shares for every Xstrata share held to conclude its long-standing plan to create an integrated mining and trading powerhouse.

Xstrata investors hoping for an improvement to the offer are likely to be disappointed, as share sales by prominent naysayers and stake-building by pro-merger Qatar have strengthened Glencore’s hand.

Graff aims to shine with Hong Kong IPO

London luxury jeweller Graff Diamonds has seen “tremendous interest” for its planned $1 billion (£638.5 million) flotation on the Hong Kong stock exchange despite it falling in the shadow of a global stock market rout.

Famous for its giant and rare gems, Graff will test retail investors’ appetite for what is set to be Asia’s biggest IPO this year. Graff plans to price the offer on Thursday and the stock is expected to debut on 7 June.

The IPO comes close on the heels of the botched $16 billion Facebook offering, which has hit investor confidence.

Lloyd’s prepares for the worst in Europe

The Lloyd’s of London insurance market has reduced its exposure “as much as possible” to the crisis-hit eurozone in preparation for a collapse of the single currency, it was reported yesterday.

Chief executive Richard Ward said Lloyd’s had put in place a contingency plan to switch euro underwriting to multi-currency settlement if Greece abandoned the euro, and that it could have to take write-downs on its £58.9 billion investment portfolio if the eurozone broke up.

Europe accounts for 18 per cent of Lloyd’s £23.5bn of gross written premiums.

Sex failing to sell in austerity Greece

Greece’s once-thriving sex industry has become the latest victim of the country’s debt crisis as Greeks spend less on erotic toys, pornography and titillating underwear.

Only a quarter of the 300 to 400 sex shops once seen in Athens have survived the crisis.

Athens Erotic Dream – Greece’s biggest sex fair – attracted big crowds when it opened in 2008, at the height of Greece’s debt-fuelled economic bubble. But the number of exhibitors has fallen by half since 2008 to about a dozen when it opened this weekend, said the fair’s organiser.