WOODSIDE is in countdown mode to give the go-ahead for its next big growth option the $10 billion development of its Pluto liquefied natural gas project on the North-West Shelf.

A final investment decision on what will be a game-changing event for the company is expected next month, possibly with the release of the group’s June half-yearprofit report.

While the market is confident Woodside will get the 100 per cent-owned project to the start line, there is uncertainty about the development cost.

Woodside has indicated it will cost $6-$10 billion, with the market expecting it to be at the upper end because of industry-wide cost pressures.

Woodside’s June-quarter report, released yesterday, said only that the board would consider a final investment decision “within the next two months”.

Capital cost increases are also on the cards for the Train 5 expansion of the existing North-West Shelf gas project, of which Woodside is manager and one-sixth partner. The cost of the project, originally approved for $2 billion in June 2005, was revised last September to $2.425 billion.

But continuing cost pressures are believed to have carried the final cost to $2.6 billion. Woodside did not refer to the issue in the quarterly report. First LNG from Train 5 is expected to be shipped in the December quarter of 2008.

Increased shipments from the four processing trains at the North-West Shelf project underpinned an increase in sales revenue for Woodside from $899 million in the preceding March quarter to $970 million in the June quarter. The revenue lift was despite the sale of the Legendre field, finalised in the March quarter, and another slump in output from the Chinguetti oilfield in Mauritania.

Woodside’s production at 17 million barrels of oil equivalent for the June quarter was down from 18.03 million barrels of oil equivalent in the March quarter. First production from the long-delayed Otway gas project, along with potential first output from Neptune and Stybarrow in the December 2007 quarter, should carry group output higher in the second (December) half.

Chinguetti, on a 100 per cent basis, was meant to produce 75,000 barrels a day. Production has fallen to as low as 12,000 barrels a day since the end of the quarter. More intense seismic coverage is expected to optimise development well opportunities.

Woodside shares closed 71 higher at $46.42.

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UK

TATE & LYLE was up 0.22 to 5.94… Goldman Sachs upgrades to buy from neutral. Adds the shares to the conviction buy list. Reduces estimates to reflect higher interest costs and dollar weakness. Believes stock to be well positioned to outperform over second half. The company says a share buyback of up to 300 million should also be a positive for the stock and Wednesday’s update could re-affirm this intention. Lifts target price 6.50 from 6.48.

ROLLS-ROYCE was down 0.15 to 5.49… Credit Suisse downgrades to neutral from outperform, on valutation and headwinds concerns. Keeps target price of 5.70. Sees the company as a long-term core holding that should outperform the sector over the cycle, but at the current share-price prefers other companies in the sector. Expects solid first half results on July 26.

France

SOC GEN was up €1.04 to €139.79… Talk of potential Unicredit merger next year - A market source has reported talk that a merger between the company and Italy’s Unicredit could be on the agenda next year, following the latter’s integration with Capitalia.

VALLOUREC was up €2.10 to €229.75… Arcelor Mittal to bid at €280 - rumor - Market sources hear revived rumor that Arcelor Mittal is to bid for the company at €280 per share.

TOTAL («www.businessweek.com») was down €0.68 to €61.62… ING downgrades to hold from buy following recent strong performance and lifts target to €62.50 from €62.10. The broker notes the company is now trading near its modestly revised DCF target price. In other broker news, HSBC ups target to €73 from €66, keeping overweight, it admits largely on market movements. Believes Shtokman deal is ‘big on volume, but low on value’.

Germany

AIR BERLIN was down €0.66 to €15.90… Morgan Stanley places 1.25 million shares at €15.95 - €16.05, reportedly.

DEUTSCHE BANK was down €0.93 to €107.30… Shares slip on rumours of profit warning - The company ’s shares are off opening levels as rumours circulate in the market that the company may issue a profit warning, according to traders.

Italy

MEDIASET was down €0.03 to €7.65… Eyeing up Wind’s Tower Company - The company is showing an interest in Tower Company, owned by Wind and 3 Italia’s company. the company could team up with with the Benetton-Clessidra alliance in bidding for the tower portfolio. The Tower Company has been valued at between €1.2 billion and €1.5 billion of which EUR 700 million-€800 million are related to Wind infrastructure.

RCS MEDIA was down €0.08 to €4.13… Cheuvreux ups target to €4.70 from €4.50, rating outperform. Believes that in the next 12 months, the company might make large acquisitions, which could pave the way for further growth and a more efficient capital structure. Adds shares are currently trading broadly in line with the median of its European peers at 10.2x and 9.4x on 2008-09 EV/EBITDA.

Netherlands

REED ELSEVIER («www.businessweek.com») was down €0.34 to €14.36… Price for Harcourt is better than expected - The company has agreed last night to sell its education arm Harcourt to rival Houghton Mifflin for US$4 billion (US$3.7 billion in cash and US$300 million i common stock). Cheuvreux says total proceeds are around €500-600 million higher than consensus estimates.

ABN AMRO («www.businessweek.com») was down €0.15 to €37.00… Barclays looking at improved offer - FT - After yesterday’s revised offer for the company by the RBS-led consortium, Barclays is understood to be looking at ways to improve its offer for the company , including issuing ‘quasi equity’ such as convertible bonds, according to the FT. SocGen upgrades to hold from sell and raises target to €37.70 from €35.

Nordic

ELECTROLUX was up SEK13.50 to SEK174.50…

With only two days to go before the publication of the seventh and final instalment of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, both the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun have broken one of the most stringent embargoes of recent times and published a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

After reading a copy “purchased at a New York City store yesterday”, one of America’s most influential literary critics, Michiko Kakutani, hails the volume in the New York Times as a dose of “good old-fashioned closure”.

According to the review, Rowling has not chosen to indulge in fancy narrative experimentation, instead opting for an epic confrontation and a straightforward epilogue laying out the characters’ fates.

“Getting to the finish line is not seamless … ” he continues, “but the overall conclusion and its determination of the main characters’ storylines possess a convincing inevitability that make some of the prepublication speculation seem curiously blinkered in retrospect.”

While the review is not uniformly positive, tributes to Rowling’s “astonishingly limber voice” and “magpie talent” suggest that fans of the multi-million pound series will not be disappointed.

Over at the Baltimore Sun, Mary Carole McCauley agrees that the ending “seems inevitable”, though complains of unanswered questions for “longtime fans”, and suggests that book seven “lacks much of the charm and humour that distinguished the earlier novels”.

These latest breaches come after a series of websites claimed to have posted photographs of the book, and online filesharing networks offered downloadable files containing the full text of the novel.

Bloomsbury described the review as “very sad” to Reuters, pointing out that there was only one more day until the official release of the book around the world.