European stocks offer some of the world’s best investment opportunities even after outperforming other markets this year, in part because Greece’s festering crisis scared away buyers, said David Herro, one of the biggest US owners of shares in the region’s companies.

The Russian businessman Filaret Galchev, who owns a 10.8% stake in Swiss building materials group Holcim, via Eurocement Holding, has rejected the merger offer that France’s Lafarge has made for Holcim, a Swiss newspaper reported.

The largest non-family shareholder of Matalan today said the discount clothing retailer was worth a lot more than founder John Hargreaves is planning to pay for it.