Financial firms fear looming regulation June 27, 2010 ACTIVITY in financial services firms over the past three months has increased at the fastest rate since September 2007, but market volatility meant that this growth was much slower than had been expected, the quarterly CBI/PwC Financial Services survey will show today. In the second quarter, a net nine per cent of firms said that [...]
Norman hopes to sell gold at ATMs June 27, 2010 GOLD trader Sharps Pixley has been sold to metals dealer Ross Norman. Norman, a director at metal news website Fastmarkets and former trader at the London Bullion Market, is understood to have bought the company in order to sell gold ingots and coins to small-scale investors. He said he hoped to revive the Sharps Pixley [...]
M&B close to £40m strike June 27, 2010 Pub giant Mitchells & Butlers is on the verge of selling its ten-pin bowling chain for up to £40m. The pub group, which is led by chief executive Adam Fowle, has been in talks in recent weeks over the sale of its Hollywood Bowl division, which has 24 centres from Glasgow to Somerset. Privately-owned AMF [...]
Barclays to expand in Eurozone June 27, 2010 Barclays is this week set to announce plans for faster expansion in Spain, Portugal and Italy, taking advantage of local competitors weak position. Antony Jenkins, head of the group’s retail banking operations, is expected to outline the plans for expansion to investors this week. Barclays already has a network in Spain and Italy. During the [...]
CASSANO QUIZZED OVER AIG COLLAPSE June 27, 2010 JOSEPH Cassano, a former AIG executive who played a big role in bringing the giant insurer to its knees, will face a grilling this week from a US panel investigating the causes of the financial crisis. Cassano will rub shoulders with a star cast, which includes Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn and chief financial officer [...]
Fitness First in £1.2bn IPO June 27, 2010 BUYOUT house BC Partners is believed to be lining up Fitness First for a flotation in the Far East which could value the world’s largest gym group at between £1bn and £1.2bn. BC Partners, which has enjoyed success with the initial public offerings (IPOs) of travel IT firm Amadeus and French care home operator Medica [...]
TNT to sack full-timers by 2012 June 27, 2010 Dutch postal company TNT has said it aims to lay off all its full-time workers within two years after the firm was crunched by the liberalisation of the country’s mail market and the shift to digital forms of communication. TNT said it would fire all employees involved in sorting and delivering mail who work more [...]
Blood takes chair at Waverley June 27, 2010 Former Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) managing director Jeremy Blood is to become chairman at Waverley TBS after Manfield Partners backed a management buyout of the business from Heineken, Britain’s largest brewer. The takeover, at an undisclosed price, comes after Heineken significantly restructured Waverley following its £7.8bn joint acquisition of S&N with Carlsberg in 2008. Blood is [...]
Cineworld signs 25-year O2 deal June 27, 2010 Cineworld, the UK’s second largest cinema chain, has won a contract to run the O2’s multiplex cinema for the next 25 years. It began operating the 11-screen venue on Friday, having inked the deal with O2 owner AEG Europe. Analysts said the site, which produced turnover of £4.1m last year, would add £600,000 to Cineworld’s sales. [...]
Eredene wins £200m port build contract June 27, 2010 AIM-listed Eredene Capital yesterday announced it has won a £200m contract to build and operate a vast container terminal in southern India. It clinched the lucrative contract as part of a consortium including Spanish port operators Grup Marítim TCB, international construction firm Obrascón Huarte Lain, and India’s Lanco Infratech. Eredene has a 22 per cent [...]