City & Corporate: The Week in City & Corporate

BASF, the German chemicals company, is in talks about a possible £3bn takeover of Swiss firm Ciba, which specialises in chemical additives for plastics and paper. M: Communications is advising Ciba, while FD is working with BASF from its German office.

- The Walt Disney Company has hired James Ward to a newly created position of European PR manager for its Disney retail stores chain. Ward will be responsible for comms in the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. He joins the entertainment giant from Manning Selvage & Lee, where he worked in the food, drink and nutrition division. Ward has also worked at JCPR, NMEC, Arcadia Group and Golin Harris.

- Barrie & Hibbert, the global risk management consultancy firm, has drafted in Mclaughlin Gibson Communications. The agency won a four-way pitch. It will help build the Edinburgh-based firm's profile as global leaders in modelling financial market risk through a focused media relations campaign. The agency will work closely with the firm's new Hong Kong office along with its existing offices in Edinburgh, New York and London.

- Aviva Investors, the asset management arm of insurance group Aviva, has appointed Aline Sullivan as its new global corporate affairs director. She will take on responsibility for media relations, public policy and internal comms in the newly created role. Sullivan was previously head of comms at wealth management firm US Trust and has also served as the head of comms for The Private Bank at Bank of America. She has also written for the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, Barron's and Bloomberg.

- Omnicom's UK field marketing agency CPM has acquired independent events and experiential agency TRO. CPM will merge its own existing experiential agency, Exentio, into TRO.