After a decade at the helm the governor of New Zealand’s Reserve bank, Alan Bollard, on Monday announced he is to step down in September after deciding not to seek a third term in office. The move comes as the country is preparing for a large-scale privatisation programme that involves the sale of stakes in several state-owned corporations including Genesis, Solid Energy, Mighty River Power and Meridian. Bollard leaves as New Zealand is struggling with slow economic growth, raised funding costs for its banks and a strong domestic currency. The focus will now be on who will succeed Bollard to take on the most powerful post in New Zealand’s economy. Former central bank deputy Murray Sherwin, Reserve Bank chairman Arthur Grimes and Reserve Bank deputy governor Grant Spencer are all in the running.

Swiss engineering giant ABB on Monday said it is buying US electrical equipment manufacturer Thomas & Betts in a $3.9bn cash transaction. The world’s largest producer of power and automation technologies offered $72 a share in cash for the Tennessee-based company. The acquisition will provide ABB access to Thomas & Betts network of over 6,000 distributor locations and help it double its low voltage products market to around $24bn in North America, according to a company statement. The acquisition price represents a 24 percent premium to Thomas & Betts; closing stock price on Friday. The Zurich-based company has secured a fully underwritten bridge financing worth $4bn from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said the group.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron late on Thursday launched an attack on his European counterparts at the World Economic Forum about their planned transaction tax “madness.” Cameron said the introduction of such a tax could cost half a million jobs and cut Europe’s economic output by around €200bn. He also risked upsetting relations with Germany in the run-up to the European summit next week by telling Germany it needs to play a bigger role in protecting the euro because “bold and decisive action” is required. He told the Davos assembly that in spite of the UK rejecting the new EU treaty he wants the country to remain within the EU. He said: “To those who think that not signing the treaty means Britain is somehow walking away from Europe let me tell you, nothing could be further from the truth.”

Swiss drug giant Roche Holding on Wednesday made a hostile $5.7bn bid for DNA diagnostics company Illumina. Roche had previously attempted “multiple efforts” to start negotiations but Illumina refused to enter into “substantive discussion,” the company said. The offering of $44.50 a share represents an 18 percent premium over Illumina’s closing price per share on Tuesday. Roche said an acquisition of Illumina would provide benefits such as increased strength in the life sciences and diagnostics sector.

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday slashed its growth forecast for the current fiscal year, citing as reasons the appreciation of the yen, the upshot of a slowdown in overseas economies and declining post earthquake reconstruction spending. The bank’s governor Masaaki Shirakawa and the board reduced the economic forecast to two percent from an earlier 2.2 estimate in October. But the central bank left monetary policy unchanged for the third successive month. The policy rate remains at close to zero percent. The Japanese economy is expected to shrink 0.4 percent in fiscal year 2011, invalidating a previous forecast for a 0.3 percent growth, according to the central bank. Bank officials noted that the European debt crisis remains Japan’s largest threat to its disaster stricken economy.