Police raid offices in PCCW case February 22, 2010 Hong Kong Police have become involved in the failed buyout of telecoms operator PCCW. They have issued search warrants for individuals involved in the aborted deal. Offices have been searched at both PCCW and Fortis Insurance. Hong Kong’s market regulator, The Securities and Futures Commission, succeeded in its attempts to block the buyout of PCCW [...]
Hedgie guru’s big return February 22, 2010 Godfather of the UK hedge fund community Stanley Fink will make a sensational return to the cutting edge of the industry when his management company ISAM teams up with Hite Capital Management. The former Man Group chief executive is poised to launch a new fund with Larry Hite in April, called ISAM Systematic. The fund [...]
City applauds Tory cut-price shares move February 22, 2010 CONSERVATIVE plans to offer millions of people cheap shares in Britain’s nationalised banks have received a tentative thumbs-up from the City. Shadow chancellor George Osborne yesterday outlined a scheme to hand small investors shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group when the government exits its £70bn stake. The “people’s bonus” would reward [...]
Greece is not looking for a bailout, says Prime Minister February 22, 2010 Greece is not looking for bailout money, according to its Prime Minister George Papandreou. He instead called for political support to enable Greece to borrow at the same rate as other EU countries. Papandreou told the BBC: “Give us the time, give us the support – and I’m not talking about financial but political support [...]
Royal London and Liver in merger talks February 22, 2010 ROYAL London and Royal Liver, Britain’s two biggest mutual companies, are understood to be in the early stages of merger talks. The proposed deal comes after Royal Liver failed in discussions with Liverpool Victoria, the UK’s largest friendly society, over a potential £10bn merger. Royal Liver turned down a previous bid from Royal London in [...]
Travelodge to construct a new hotel in heart of the City February 22, 2010 Travelodge will open three new hotels, including a development in the heart of the City, in time for the 2012 Olympic Games. A 77-bed hotel in a vacant office building off Cannon Street will cost £7.5m to develop. It hopes to attract business travellers as well as tourists visiting St Paul’s and Monument. The firm [...]
Threat of disruption from German Lufthansa strike February 22, 2010 Germany is bracing for a four-day strike at flagship airline Lufthansa from today that threatens to disrupt travel to and from Europe’s biggest economy. Lufthansa’s pilots plan to go on strike in a row over pay and job security, fearing the company could try to cut staff costs by shifting jobs to foreign subsidiaries such [...]
VT mulls £233m payout to block Babcock deal February 22, 2010 THE takeover battle between shipbuilder Babcock and services company VT Group has taken a twist after one of VT’s largest shareholders urged the board to open its books. Fund manager Tim Steer of Artemis said chief executive Paul Lester should cooperate with Babcock to encourage the larger firm to increase its £1.25bn indicative offer. Steer, [...]
It’s time to start bidding up the predator February 22, 2010 IT must be awfully hard for VT?Group to fend off Babcock, when it has been in hunter mode itself recently. It has been spinning a takeover of Mouchel with talk of synergies and scale, but balks when Babcock uses similar language. VT’s trump card, a shareholder payout totalling as much as £230m or 126p a [...]
Orange set to finally merge with T-Mobile February 22, 2010 ORANGE and T-Mobile look set to become the UK’s biggest network after their long anticipated merger received the thumbs up from Brussels. A drawn-out investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) looked likely but a string of concessions appear to have smoothed the way for the merger to go ahead as early as this [...]