Barclays says an overwhelming majority of its shareholders has backed its 60-billion-euro ($83 billion) offer for Dutch group ABN AMRO in a proxy vote, though full results are not expected until later on Friday. Earlier Barclays threatened to abandon the deal if it cannot get the right price.
    
** Britain’s Cadbury Schweppes rejected a private equity bid for its North American drinks unit over the terms rather than price after it was asked to provide financing on a third of the deal, according to industry sources. A private equity consortium including Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Lion Capital offered Cadbury 6.4 billion to 6.9 billion pounds ($13-14 billion).
    
** The Philippine government plans to start accepting bids for its 40 percent stake in geothermal group PNOC-Energy Development on Sept. 20. Manila hopes to earn about 36 billion pesos ($761 million) from the sale to help it meet its full-year deficit goal of 63 billion pesos, or 0.9 percent of gross domestic product. 
    
** Campbell Soup is seeking $1 billion to $1.5 billion for its Godiva Chocolatier division, Bloomberg News reported on its Website, citing two people with direct knowledge of the sale. Financial information about the unit will be sent to potential buyers later this month, the report said. Campbell said last month it was exploring alternatives for Godiva, including selling the well-known luxury brand. Analysts have said Godiva could attract a price of more than $1 billion.
 
** Alcoa may use cash from the sale of its near 7 percent stake in Aluminum Corp of China to do a share buyback or fund capital spending and restructuring. Alcoa’s hostile attempt to buy Canadian rival Alcan over the summer lost out to a substantially higher offer from an even larger metals company, Rio Tinto, and left many wondering about its next move.
    
** Quiksilver is studying three offers for its Rossignol unit, two and a half years after it bought the French maker of winter sporting goods for 360 million euros ($500 million), according to French newspaper La Tribune. The candidates to buy Rossignol were investment funds specializing in business turnaround, according to the newspaper.