Michael O’Leary sells off 16.5m of Ryanair stock June 8, 2009 MICHAEL O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, has sold off €18.75m (£16.5m) of stock in the budget airline, it emerged yesterday. O’Leary divested 5m shares, taking his holding in the firm down to just over four per cent, equal to 60m shares. The news comes after Ryanair last week fell to its first full-year loss [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 8, 2009 RIO TINTOCitigroup said that Rio Tinto’s growth projects will come back onto the agenda now that the miner has pulled out of the Chinalco deal and confirmed a rights issue. to reduce its debt burden. The broker notes that dilution from the cash call will be less than if the Chinalco deal went ahead, and [...]
Alliance Boots and the ex-banker: Pessina’s most daring appointment June 8, 2009 IT’S been quite a busy couple of days,” says the 67 year-old Stefano Pessina, in a somewhat understated sort of way. The executive chairman of Alliance Boots was supposed to have spent the weekend by the sea in his native Italy before flying off to a conference in the US. Instead, he’s in his financial [...]
Daredevil for a day June 8, 2009 ANYONE who has marvelled at the aerial spectacle of the Red Bull Air Race must surely have wondered what it is like to hurtle along in a small aircraft at high speed just feet above the ground. The airborne equivalent of Formula One, the event has attracted millions of spectators around the world. But while [...]
Accountancy training firm BPP agrees 304m takeover June 8, 2009 LEGAL and financial training group BPP said yesterday it had agreed an all-cash takeover offer from rival Apollo Global which values the business at £303.5m, ir 620p-a-share BPP – the UK’s only for-profit business college with the power to award degrees – said that the offer represents a 70 per cent premium to its closing [...]
REVENUES FIZZ AT IRN BRU June 8, 2009 DRINKS maker AG Barr, which makes Irn Bru, said yesterday its sales from 1 February to 29 May rose 22.5 per cent from a year ago, boosted by a strong performance in the Rubicon fruit juice unit it bought last year. Like-for-like sales, taking out the effect of the Rubicon acquisition, also jumped by 7.9 [...]
LDV in administration as all staff made redundant June 8, 2009 AILING van maker LDV yesterday laid off all its workers after it was put into administration. LDV, which is owned by Oleg Deripaska’s GAZ, employed 850 people directly and thousands more in dealerships and supply chains. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will now take over the running of the firm. “There is still the opportunity of a bright [...]
Hornby lands top Boots job June 8, 2009 FORMER HBOS chief executive Andy Hornby, who was criticised for allowing the bank to ring up huge corporate losses, was yesterday named as chief executive of high street giant Alliance Boots. The failed banker is likely to receive a pay package of around £1m. Although the company refused to give a precise breakdown of Hornby’s [...]
MOBIUS MOBILISING ON IRAQ June 8, 2009 MARK Mobius, the enigmatic world authority on emerging markets investment from US fund giant Franklin Templeton, is to start investing in war-torn Iraq. The so-called “Yul Brynner of Wall Street” said he would start investing in six months to a year. He hopes to tap into strong growth in the Middle Eastern nation. Mobius made [...]
Bingo resilient in the downturn June 8, 2009 The recession will have only a muted effect on the UK’s bingo halls after the industry already absorbed the negative impact of the smoking ban and changes to machine regulation, accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has predicted. The firm forecasts that bingo revenues will remain relatively static over 2009, falling between zero and three per cent. But [...]