Blackstone poised to snap up half of BritishLand’s Broadgate complex September 17, 2009 PROPERTY investment firm British Land is poised to complete the sale of half of its £2.2bn City office complex Broadgate to US private equity house Blackstone. The two firms were last night thrashing out the terms of the deal, which will see Blackstone enter into a joint venture with British Land. Blackstone will pay just [...]
Hershey eyes Cadbury bid September 17, 2009 THETRUST in charge of US confectionery maker Hershey has hired bankers to advise on a possible bid for Cadbury, after fellow American giant Kraft had a $16.7bn (£10.2bn) bid rebuffed. Hershey has drafted in Goldman Sachs banker Byron Trott and boutique banking firm Watch Hill Partners to advise on a bid for the company. Trott [...]
Google’s printing deal is revolutionary September 17, 2009 GOOGLE has come in for a lot of flak from publishers, some of it justified. But if you want to understand why it remains an exceptional company, there is no better place to start than with its latest deal. Over the last seven years, Google has scanned 2m out-of-print books from libraries and made them [...]
Levene: stop bashing City September 17, 2009 LLOYD’S of London chairman Lord Levene has launched a fierce defence of the City, after suggestions its size should be curbed following the financial crisis. Speaking at the Lloyd’s City Dinner, Levene last night accused politicians of “pandering to populist outrage” with “knee-jerk reactions”. He said political suggestions the so-called “real economy” is “superior and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 17, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES UK RAISES OPEL ‘SUBSIDY WAR’ FEARLord Mandelson called on Brussels last night to ensure that Germany’s offer of multibillion-euro subsidies to smooth the sale of General Motors’ European arm does not begin a “subsidy war”, with governments using state aid to protect jobs. The UK business secretary’s intervention in the political row over [...]
EU keen to cut bank bonuses September 17, 2009 European Union leaders met in Brussels last night in a bid to thrash out a joint approach to curbing bonuses ahead of the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh next week. The EU wants to present a united front on bankers’ pay, including measures to link bonus awards to the long-term financial performance.
Trade credit claims are falling September 17, 2009 Insurance claims by suppliers over non-payment for their goods and services have fallen for the first time in a year, according to key data. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said the number of trade credit insurance claims in the second quarter of 2009 was 5,661, a fall of one per cent from the 5,702 [...]
Iceland cut from FTSE index September 17, 2009 Iceland has been dropped from leading equity benchmarks following the collapse of its financial markets in the wake of the failure of its three main banks over the last 12 months. Both the FTSE and MSCI index firms said they will no longer track economic indicators of the troubled Nordic country.
ITVboard is split over Ball pay demands September 17, 2009 TONY Ball is said to be seeking a package worth up to £20m as chief executive of ITV, should he manage to bring the company’s share price back to health. But the boardroom is understood to be split over the terms of the deal, which is expected to include the ex-BSkyB boss putting some of [...]
Investment in UK by foreign firms halves September 17, 2009 BRITAIN saw its foreign investment slashed by half last year as the downturn led foreign firms to ditch spending plans in the UK, according to a UN survey. The world investor flow survey from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), reveals that investment in the UK was hit harder by the global recession [...]