Mall owner disposes of four sites August 16, 2010 THE Mall Fund, a major investor in shopping centres in the UK, yesterday offloaded four sites for £135.9m. The fund, set up by Capital & Regional and Aviva Investors in 2002, sold the shopping centres to clients of Rockspring Property Investment Managers as part of its drive to cut debts. The Liberty 2 Shopping Centre [...]
Balfour gets US rail contract August 16, 2010 Construction firm Balfour Beatty has won the contract for a £560m commuter rail project in the US. It said it had closed the deal for the design, build and operation of the Eagle P3 project in Denver, beginning later this month. The FTSE 250 firm will be responsible for a 50 per cent share of [...]
Brewer defends S Africa share August 16, 2010 SABMiller aims to protect its 90 per cent market share in South Africa from rival Heineken, the head of the brewer’s South African unit said yesterday. The world’s second-largest brewer was also confident it had a solid case against South African charges of violating anti-competition laws, managing director Norman Adami said. London and Johannesburg-listed SABMiller [...]
Misys sells off AllScripts stake August 16, 2010 A subsidiary of software firm Misys has announced it is selling 25m shares on behalf of its parent company and majority shareholder. Misys is selling to reduce its majority stake in AllScripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions as part of an agreement between the two, in preparation for AllScripts’ pending merger with Eclipsys Corporation. There is also an [...]
China investors to snap up AIA stake August 16, 2010 A CONSORTIUM of Chinese financial services companies are eyeing a 30 per cent stake in AIA, the Asian arm of US insurance giant AIG, ahead of its planned listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange later this year. The consortium – thought to include Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the China Life insurance [...]
Murdoch to launch tablet-only national newspaper in the US August 16, 2010 RUPERT?Murdoch is planing an audacious tablet-PC only newspaper in the US. Murdoch plans to charge users a subscription fee to read his new venture on their iPads. It is understood the as-yet-unnamed paper will draw on resources from his existing media outlets but also have its own staff of several dozen. The News Corp boss [...]
BlackBerry agrees to share India user data to avoid ban August 16, 2010 BLACKBERRY-maker Research in Motion (RIM) yesterday caved in to demands to provide security services partial access to its users’ information in India. The firm has been under pressure to share encrypted information since terrorists in Mumbai allegedly used smartphones to plan their attack. UAE recently reacted by threatening to force mobile networks to ban BlackBerry’s [...]
LARA FIGHTS GAMING APATHY August 16, 2010 GAME maker Crystal Dynamics has attempted to breath life into the flagging industry with the release of a new Tomb Raider adventure, The Guardian of Light, which is available for download. The industry is suffering from the traditionally slow summer season, the World Cup effect and the unusually hot British summer.
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 16, 2010 SPORTS DIRECT Numis retains its “add” rating on sports retailer Sports Direct after a solid year, with ebitda of £160m in the year to April. But it has revised the ebitda forecast for this year down £7m to £195m due to a tougher trading environment. Nonetheless it believes the business has a strong internet sales [...]
China GDP overtakes Japan August 16, 2010 JAPAN’S second-quarter GDP was less than China’s before seasonal adjustments, government data showed, underscoring expectations that China will overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest economy this year. Japan’s second-quarter unadjusted GDP totalled $1.2883 trillion on a nominal dollar basis, against China’s second-quarter unadjusted GDP of $1.3369 trillion, an estimate by Japan’s Cabinet Office showed. But [...]