Swannell plans to juggle HMV and Marks & Spencer roles August 23, 2010 FORMER dealmaker Robert Swannell will remain on the board of HMV after taking the chair of Marks & Spencer in January, it is understood. Swannell, whose appointment as Sir Stuart Rose’s replacement was confirmed yesterday, will divide his time between the structurally challenged music chain and the all-purpose retailer. He will step down from the [...]
Indian energy firms could muscle in on $10bn Vedanta bid for Cairn August 23, 2010 ALL options are open for Indian state energy firms to make a counter-bid to Vedanta Resources’ $9.6bn (£6.2bn) offer for control of Cairn India, an oil ministry source said. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Gail and Oil India are thought to be considering a joint bid for Cairn India, a unit of the UK’s [...]
HSBC first in line for stake in Nedbank August 23, 2010 HSBC yesterday confirmed it is in exclusive talks with insurer Old Mutual to acquire up to 70 per cent of the shares in Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth largest lender, in a bid to aggressively ramp up its offering in the country. The parties have not disclosed the terms of a potential deal, though analysts yesterday [...]
There is no need to tap shareholders August 23, 2010 IN the battle to become banker to the emerging markets, HSBC has won an important victory over Standard Chartered, its closest strategic rival. Having entered exclusive talks to buy Old Mutual out of Nedbank, HSBC looks set to take control of the South African bank. The logic of such a deal is not in doubt: [...]
PotashCorp hunts for a white knight August 23, 2010 THIS is shaping up to be a classic takeover wrangle. First came the unsolicited bid – at $39.6bn (£25.5bn), BHP Billiton’s offer is a 20 per cent premium to PotashCorp’s undisturbed share price – which was immediately knocked back. Then came the anguished rhetoric from PotashCorp about the “grossly inadequate” level of BHP’s approach. The [...]
Minerva rebel investor KiFin slams finances August 23, 2010 ACTIVIST shareholder KiFin piled the pressure on property developer Minerva yesterday with a barrage of criticism ahead of a crunch meeting next month. KiFin sent a letter to Minerva shareholders taking a swipe at the firm’s finances, saying: “One does not need to be a rocket scientist to see how hugely over leveraged Minerva is.” [...]
Chrysler will struggle to turn a profit this year, Marchionne says August 23, 2010 CHRYSLER chief executive Sergio Marchionne said yesterday it would be “difficult” for the automaker to turn a net profit for the full year 2010. Marchionne did not offer guidance for Chrysler’s financial performance for either the third or fourth quarter of the year. The third-largest US automaker, which emerged from a US government-supported bankruptcy in [...]
Watchdog to tighten oil checks August 23, 2010 The number of significant oil spills off the shores of the UK rose sharply in 2009/10, according to figures released today by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The industrial regulator said there were 85 large unplanned leaks over the past year, up from 61 the year before. The majority occurred in the North Sea. [...]
TRADERS SEX UP THE DULL WORLD OF FOREX August 23, 2010 THE THINGS that bored traders get up to when they get a minute, eh? The Capitalist chances upon an, err, enterprising website set up by a pair of forex traders, who claim to have cracked the conundrum of how to dispense a barrage of information to their peers while simultaneously holding their interest – by [...]
Bovis back in the black but remains wary August 23, 2010 Bovis Homes swung to a pre-tax profit in the first half of the year yesterday, with the housebuilder saying that sales are holding up during the sluggish summer months. “ We have seen a remarkable stability of sales rates week on week, clearly people talk about the summer being quieter than the spring, we’ve seen [...]