Duke street snaps up debt collection agency April 6, 2010 Duke Street, the mid-market private equity group, has acquired a 58 per cent stake in debt collection group Marlin for an undisclosed sum. Marlin specialises in collecting from wealthy debtors, with “litigation quality” arrears that can be recouped through the courts. Duke Street partner Miles Cresswell-Turner said: “Marlin has the potential, with funding and operational [...]
SOUR?TASTE April 6, 2010 MPs delivered a damning verdict on Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury yesterday, saying the US conglomerate was “unwise” to promise to save the Somerdale factory in Bristol only to close it later, with the loss of 400 jobs. The business committee also expressed dismay at the role of hedge funds in the takeover. Unions called for [...]
Barclays accuses Lehman of keeping back $3bn assets after 2008 collapse April 6, 2010 THE legal wrangle between Barclays and Lehman Brothers Holdings is set to intensify this week when the British bank tells a judge Lehman is withholding $3bn (£2bn) in assets. Barclays, which bought Lehman’s core operations after it imploded in September 2008, says it is entitled to around $750m left in clearance boxes and $750m in [...]
Credit Suisse bolsters its investment banking line-up with new Nomura hire April 6, 2010 CREDIT Suisse, the bank that is advising the giant insurer Prudential on its £15bn rights issue, has hired Dominic Charnock from Nomura for its growing investment banking team. Charnock joins the investment banking team that includes Charles Donald, who left Nomura for Credit Suisse at the end of last year. Donald is widely credited as [...]
Bank changes May meeting date April 6, 2010 The Bank of England has decided to change the date of its May monetary policy decision to 10 May from 6 May in order to avoid clashing with the general election that was announced yesterday. The Debt Management Office has also had to reschedule some bond auctions as a result of the announcement.
Ukrainian egg company to float April 6, 2010 Avangardco, the Ukrainian egg company, is planning to float on the London Stock Exchange. It yesterday said it plans a £132m initial public offering (IPO). The Kiev-based company currently has 16m birds and is the country’s biggest producer of shell eggs and dry egg products. It has 13 factories across the Ukraine and exports to [...]
AOL plans to sell or shut Bebo April 6, 2010 AOL plans to find a buyer for its social networking site Bebo, for which it paid $850m (£556m) in 2008, or shut it down. The level of competition in social networking makes it difficult for the company to fight larger players such as Facebook and News Corp’s MySpace, AOL said. The company plans to decide [...]
Leaders in rallying cry ahead of 6 May election April 6, 2010 GORDON Brown yesterday fired the starting pistol on a four-week election campaign ahead of polling day on 6 May. The Prime Minister asked voters to give him a “clear and straightforward mandate” to secure the economic recovery and sent a rallying cry to Labour activists from the steps of 10 Downing Street. “The future is [...]
Tories gain more support for jobs tax pledge April 6, 2010 THE TORIES were last night claiming another victory in the battle over National Insurance, after three business leaders added their names to a letter condemning Labour plans to hike the “tax on jobs” after the election. Tory sources said that Yell chairman and ex-Merrill Lynch banker Bob Wigley had decided to support the campaign, along with [...]
Which party will emerge victorious? April 6, 2010 BROWN confirmed Westminster’s “worst kept secret” yesterday as he announced a 6 May general election. David Cameron said it would be the most important political contest “in a generation”, but it is also proving one of the hardest to second guess. We want to know what you think the outcome of the election will be. [...]