Jardine takes Rothschilds stake

Jardine Strategic Holdings Ltd. this week said it had completed the acquisition of a 20 percent shareholding in Rothschilds Continuation Holdings AG from Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Plc for $182 million.

RCH is the parent company of NM Rothschild & Sons Limited and is a major holding company within the Rothschild Group.

The Rothschild Group has offices in more than 30 countries and employs some 2,000 people around the world.

Bermuda-based Jardine Strategic is a holding company within the Jardine Matheson Group which makes long-term strategic investments in multinational businesses, particularly those with an Asian focus, and in other high quality companies with existing or potential links with the Group.

Its principal attributable interests are in Jardine Matheson (53 percent), Dairy Farm (78 percent), Hongkong Land (44 percent), Mandarin Oriental (75 percent) and Jardine Cycle & Carriage (62 percent).

Arlington agrees loan

Bermuda-registered Arlington Tankers Ltd. has agreed a $229.5 million loan with The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc that will be used to refinance the company?s debt and to fund the purchase of two product tankers.

Arlington said the five-year facility will enable it to refinance its $135 million debt facility with Fortis Bank this month and to complete the acquisition of the product tankers from the Stena Group by January.

Arlington has also entered into an interest rate swap agreement with RBS that will fix the interest rate of the loan at 5.38 percent.

Lawsuits dismissed

ATLANTA (Bloomberg) ? A Mississippi judge dismissed more than 4,200 silica lawsuits against Ingersoll-Rand Co., 3M Co. and other companies, less than six months after a federal judge concluded their diagnoses of lung disease couldn?t be trusted.

Circuit Judge Jim Kitchens in Macon, Mississippi issued the orders yesterday after about a week of negotiations between both sides, said Fred Krutz, who represents at least 30 of the 134 defendants, including Bermuda-based Ingersoll-Rand.

?This is the beginning of many more dismissals, certainly in Mississippi,? said Krutz, a partner at Foreman, Perry, Watkins Krutz & Tardy in Jackson, Mississippi.

The claims, part of a mass-tort filing once valued at $1 billion, are now all but worthless, he said.

US District Judge Janis Jack in Corpus Christi, Texas, who oversaw pre-trial matters in the claims, wrote in a June 30 order that diagnoses claiming that exposure to silica dust led to lung disease ?were manufactured for money?.

Tyco unit criticised

NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? Four of 24 drug companies with booths at a 2002 psychiatric convention violated US rules by promoting unauthorised doses or uses of medicine, a study says.

In spot visits to exhibitors, researchers from Public Citizen, a Washington-based nonprofit, found one instance each of violations by Tyco International Ltd.?s Mallinckrodt unit, Novartis AG and two other companies, according to findings released yesterday in the Journal of Public Health Policy.

Ten companies, including Mallinckrodt, also committed 16 alleged violations of American Psychiatric Association rules aimed at curbing promotional efforts, including passing out personalised luggage tags, canvas bags and other gifts valued at more than the $10 association limit, the researchers said.