* Explores the M&A environment in Europe North America and Asia

* Explores the M&A environment in Europe, North America and Asia. But it achieved record tonnage volumes of over 49 milliontonnes in the quarter, up 26 percent from a year ago. As atend-March, it held $1.2 billion in cash, while cash plus tradereceivables and inventory totalled $3.8 billion (Editing by Ramthan Hussain) China Brazil Japan. U3O8 Holdings Plc – Extension Of Fundraising1 July 2009The Board of U3O8 Holdings Plc (“U3O8″ or “the Company”) announces that it hasdecided to extend the closing date for its current fundraising to 10 July 2009at 15:00. Details of the fundraising were originally announced on 29 May.The Directors of the Issuer accept responsibility for this announcement.ENQUIRIES:CONRAD WINDHAM, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERTELEPHONE: 020 7803 0607E-MAIL: CORPORATE ADVISERSGRANT THORNTON UK LLPFIONA KINDNESSTELEPHONE: 020 7383 5100END. The tanker isalready anchored off southern Malaysia’s Tanjung Pelepas port. Strong has also leased a VLCC, while Itochu took on landedtanks recently to beef up its fuel oil trading operations.

Noble had made a foray into Asia’s physical fuel oil marketthree to four years ago, before abandoning the move after lessthan two years, with both its traders leaving the firm But itcontinued to trade in the derivatives market. Noble, which had total revenues of around $36 billion in2008, told the Reuters Global Energy Summit last month it alsoplans to expand into the Asian and European distillates marketlater this year. Sources said Noble has been enquiring on the availabilityof long-term storage terminals for a few months, but allexisting tanks have been taken on long-term leases, despite thejump in commercial capacity to 5.5 million cu m from 2.95million cu m. Other firms that are also venturing into the fuel oilmarket include Southern Petrochemical Co Ltd, an affiliate ofChina’s Sinopec Group, Asian-based trader Strong Petroleum andJapan’s Itochu Petroleum.

It is also building up storage capacities around the globe,particularly in Brazil and China. The company posted a 46 percent fall in net earnings to$90.2 million for the three months ended March 31, as commodityprices slumped and global economies slowed. Guangzhou-based Southernpec will start selling bunker fuelin Singapore next month after it paid about $15 million for a284,000-tonne supertanker to store fuel oil. The five hires were formerly from Trafigura, who had leftthe European trading house in the past year. Singapore-listed Noble (NOBG.SI) aims to secure a VeryLarge Crude Carrier (VLCC) by the October-December quarter,which will likely be anchored in southern Malaysian waters nearPasir Gudang or Tanjung Pelepas, industry sources said onWednesday. “Their trading team has grown in size, so it’s notsurprising they are looking for a floater, especially whenthere are no landed tanks available,” said one trading source The company could not be immediately reached for comment.

Hong Kong-based Noble started trading physical fuel oilglobally for the first time in April, after employing at leastfive traders, on hopes of gaining from potentially firm trademargins as residual fuel supply tightens following the upgradeof Asian and European refineries. Suddenly, they have been forced to re-evaluate their spending,including where they do their grocery shopping as well as their in-store choices* 39% of UK shoppers are frequent buyers of private label products. Many are nowlikely to consider private label products to be on a par, if not better thanmarket leading brands across sectors * For more than half of UK shoppers, lower prices have a high amount ofinfluence over where people do their shopping. Nevertheless, the quality ofproducts sold has more influence over their (changeable) grocery shoppingdestinations.